Overall: 37cm (14in) x 47cm (18.5in)
Watercolour on paper, painted sketch. Kettledrummer of the Life Guards in State Dress, and mounted on a skewbald drum horse with white shrabraque with mounted bandsmen to the rear.
Signed and dated lower left with initials ‘FR/19’ for Richard Lowndes French. Framed and glazed.
John Richard Lowndes French, 2nd Earl of Ypres (1881-1958) was the son of Field Marshal Sir John French, commander of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in 1914-15. He was born near Morpeth in Northumberland where his father was stationed. He was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery, but his military career was cut short following a riding accident. French’s talent for art did nothing to endear him to his father. He succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Ypres following his death on 22 May 1925. During the Second World War he commanded a battalion of the Home Guard. Sylistically the present work compares favourably with others in the Royal Collection, cf French’s ‘The King Presenting New Standards to the Household Cavalry on the Horseguards Parade, June 1927’ (RCIN 452007).