"Girbal's French Guard Horse Artillery wins!" Topic

You were asked – TMP link

Something for the game room. When the horse and musket armies are on the table, I have a print of "Scotland Forever!" for the cavalry and "Regulars, by God!" for the infantry. What in your opinion is the artillery painting which deserves to go on the walls with those two? (And where can I find a print?)

In the tiebreaker round of voting:

28% said "Girbal's French Guard Horse Artillery"

22% said "Norman Ramsay's artillery escapade at Fuentes d'Onoro"

Oui!

Concur.

The French Guard horse artillery was an elite arm with the artillerymen being handpicked from the line. Similarly, the French line horse artillery considered themselves an elite arm, and that opinion was concurred with by the RHA.

Even after heavy losses in Russia, both Guard and Line horse artillery were still considered to be an elite arm.

Well I cannot find the original artwork, using the title offered as a search term. Can we please have a link?

Horse artillery was surely an elite in any army. Very expensive and much expected of them. Plus well turned out of course

The Austrian cavalry batteries had no special training that might be required for horse artillery. And realistically, they were not true horse artillery.

The Prussian artillery arm as a whole was not considered an equal arm to the infantry and cavalry thanks to Frederick the Great. Their performance in 1806 despite having a considerable numerical advantage in 1806 was substandard. The Prussians had no artillery school until 1791 and that was abolished during the reform period.

The Russians were hampered by under-educated artillery officers and their greatest strength was mass-they usually had more guns on the field than the French did and still didn't perform as well overall.

The Wurttemberg horse artillery on the other hand was considered the equal of the French by their corps commander, Ney, in 1812.

Thanks Brechtel198, an interesting quick survey.
Like Deadhead I too am keen to see "Girbal's French Guard Horse Artillery". Any tips on where I should look?

Thanks in advance.

One of Girbal's artillery plates is here:

link

It might be the one you're looking for. It is horse artillery moving up an incline.

Thanks for your help. I did finally manage to find two of his works. New to me though.

There is some info on the artist towards the end of this text;

link

There is another one depicting the new Guard foot artillery at Wagram. It can be found here:

link

In the tiebreaker round of voting:

28% said "Girbal's French Guard Horse Artillery"

(link? :https://www.pinterest.com/pin/212091463680893040/

22% said "Norman Ramsay's artillery escapade at Fuentes d'Onoro"

And 35% said "none of these/no opinion"

So there's no real winner

:)

Stephen

Another artist that does excellent artillery prints is Keith Rocco. His website is here:

keithrocco.com/inventory

I have a few of his artillery prints and they are framed and in my library.

That site of Rocco's artwork is superb. I explored it further and found the "upmarket" version of Dawson's Napoleon's Waterloo Army. I wish…….looks wonderful but a bit pricey for a poor retired pensioner.

I have it and have found that there are too many errors in fact in the text. The paintings by Rocco are excellent and makes the volume well-worth having.

Surely that painting across the river is inspired by the Airfix box art from the 60s

Which one is that, Marc?

Airfix actually plagiarised their own ACW artillery set box art for the later Waterloo RHA.

ACW:

Waterloo:

I admit – at least for artist in the western part of the world, Patrice Courcelle is in my view the most impressive in style and creating an atmosphere fitting for the time period.

Now this is brilliant.

Courcelle is indeed a master.

But Girbal I thought less convincing as an "artist". What I saw, prompted by this discussion, I thought was very competent, but only as an illustrator.

How clever of MtPF and Le 4eme Cuir to spot the connection to just that. Back of a cereal packet, or front of an Airfix Box instead.

Girbal, I gather, is largely forgotten in his homeland and there is a "paint by numbers" quality to his work, but he did at least inspire plagiarism, so he must appeal as dynamic. But just how shameless is that plagiarism?

How clever to find that and show us…..I am sure that I knew it, I almost remember it, but only now do I see it, once reminded.

Very interesting topic. Thanks Bill