Overall: 84cm (33in) x 66cm (26in)
Lithograph proof impression. Three quarter length portrait of titled ‘Lieutenant General Sir Charles James Napier GCB’, after Smart, with inscriptions ‘Governor of Scinde / In the costume he wore during his campaign in against the Hill Tibes on the frontier of Scinde / The rocky fastness of Truckkee with natural walls 1000 feet high where he forced them to surrender forms the background’. Marked ‘PROOF’. Published by Paul & Dominic Colnaghi, 13 & 14 Pall Mall East, London. Sheet: 570 x 450 mm, Contained in Victorian foliate frame under glass.
A rare image after the portraitist Smart of whom next to nothing is known except that his oil portrait off Napier is in the National Portrait Gallery - NPG 3964.
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Charles James Napier (1782–1853) was born in Ireland and entered the Army in 1794 but was deemed too young at 12 to proceed on campaign. He was sent back Ireland to continue his education until the Irish Rebellion of 1798, when his father fortified the family home and arming his five sons offered sanctuary to all who were willing to resist the insurgents. He later commanded 1/50th Foot in the famous Retreat to Coruña where he was wounded five times and left for dead. He was saved by a French drummer and after interventions from Marshals Soult and Ney was part of a prisoner swap. Joining the Light Division as a volunteer, he acted as aide-de camp to Robert Craufurd at the battle on the Coa (1810), and had two horses killed under him. On the fall of Almeida the army retreated, and Napier was attached to Lord Wellington's staff; at the battle of Busaco (1810) he was shot through the face, his jaw broken, and his eye injured. He was sent to Lisbon, where he was laid up for some months.
In 1813 he led a brigade that included a corps of Frenchmen enlisted from POWs in raids on east coast of America. In 1815 he rushed back to Europe to take part in the storming of Cambrai and the march into Paris. In 1821 he was appointed high commissioner of Cephalonia to protect the people against feudal oppression. This was probably the happiest period of Napier's life. He threw himself with all his determination and energy into the reform of abuses of all kinds, and into the development of everything that could improve the welfare of the Cephalonians. At this time he made a deep impression on Lord Byron who spoke of him on his deathbed.
Napier was later a Major-General of the Bombay Army, during which he led the Conquest of Scinde, before serving as the governor of Scinde, and Commander-in-Chief in India. The war in Scinde was remarkable mainly for his character - viz ‘Immensely vigorous and quite without fear, he had a gift of trenchant epigram which ensured that what he said was repeated in every mess and barracks. His prejudices were fierce, his scruples few. He won the hearts of many, though he made enemies of those who were not prepared to give him their whole-hearted allegiance. But the fiery and romantic imagination which enhanced his appeal to the troops also persuaded him, after the event, that he had always been right; he was peacock as well as eagle and his testimony is not always to be relied on.’