30.5 cm (9in) x 23cm (in)
Watercolour on paper, painted sketch. Rear view of a mounted State Trumpeter of the Life Guards. Signed lower left with initials for (John) Frederick Tayler.
Provenance With Spink & Son Ltd.,
(John) Frederick Tayler (1802–1889) was born at Elstree, Hertfordshire, the son of a country gentleman who was ruined by a fraudster, entered the Army and died soon after leaving a widow and 17 children. Frederick's uncle, Charles Henry Hall, was dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and he was sent successively to Eton College and Harrow School, and destined for the church. He soon, however, showed his strong artistic bent, and, in spite of domestic opposition, determined to become a painter.
After studying at Sass's school and at the Royal Academy he went to Paris, and worked for a time under Horace Vernet, also frequenting the studio of Vernet's son-in-law, Paul Delaroche. From France he passed into Italy, where he spent some time, chiefly in Rome. While young he met Richard Parkes Bonington at Calais, and a friendship sprang up between the two painters, who for a time shared a studio in Paris.
Tayler's made his début in the academy of 1830 with an oil painting ‘The Band of the 2nd Life Guards’. It was, however, as a watercolour painter that he achieved the popularity which was maintained throughout his long career. He was president of the Royal Watercolour Society.