Samuel Andrews (Irish, circa 1767-1807)

Major General David Baird in the attitude of mounting the breach at the assault of Seringapatam

Footnotes

Provenance
According to a label to the reverse (now concealed), formerly in the collection of Alexander John Forbes-Leith (1847-1925).
According to the Royal Military Exhibition catalogue, formerly in the collection of a Miss Lilburn, c. 1890.
Property from a descendant of Major General Sir David Baird (1757-1829).

Exhibited
According to a label to the reverse (now concealed), The Royal Military Exhibition, Royal Chelsea Hospital, London, 1890.

Published
The catalogue for The Royal Military Exhibition, p. 48, Item No. 681, Division V, Part II (1797-1807).

The inscription to the right hand side reads: 'Major General David Baird in the attitude of mounting the breach at the assault of Seringapatam on the 4 May 1799'.

Major General David Baird was an instrumental figure in the Fourth Mysore War (1798-99), leading the final British assault on Seringapatam on the 4th of May 1799 which resulted in the death of 'The Tiger of Mysore', Tipu Sultan, and the capture of his capital. Baird's role in the conflict was deemed so important that an order was issued from head-quarters for the general and field-officers to assemble, and a sword recovered from the defeated ruler's private apartments, now the fabled 'Bedchamber Sword', was officially presented to Baird as a token of the Army's gratitude (sold in these rooms, Islamic and Indian Art, 23 May 2023, lot 175P).

The present work depicts the general in a commanding pose in the action of storming the capital. Andrews' rendering of the General comprises a detailed portrait and contrasting loosely sketched figure, befitting his primary occupation as a portrait miniaturist. It is possible that Andrews may have been planning on creating a larger painting of the storming of Seringapatam, a subject that took hold of the imagination of many British artists at the time, for which this may have been an initial study, and would explain the looser finish. Andrews' corpus of work is, however, mostly formed of conventional miniatures, making the present watercolour a rare example of a full-length portrait.

Unlike many of the British artists who captured the events of Seringapatam, Andrews was resident in India at the time of the Fourth Mysore War, being first recorded in Madras in 1791 and subsequently appearing in a list of Calcutta residents in 1798 (Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825, London, 1979, p. 396). He would remain in India until his death in 1807. A follower of the miniaturist John Smart, examples of Andrews' works include a miniature of an unknown officer in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (P.9-1944), and of Risaldar, the bodyguard of the Governor of Madras, in the National Army Museum, London (NAM. 1986-04-43-1). One fellow artist resident in India at the time, Thomas Hickey, depicted Baird in a drawing dated to the 21 September 1799 which bears a striking similarity to his depiction in the present lot (illustrated in Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825, London, 1979, p. 220, No. 140).

An exhibition label to the reverse of the framing board of present lot, now not visible due to the frame, indicates that it was lent to the Royal Military Exhibition at the Royal Chelsea Hospital in 1890. The catalogue of the exhibition notes that the portrait was lent by a Miss Lilburn. A further label, also now not visible due to the frame, indicates that the present lot was once in the collection of A. J. Forbes-Leith, probably Alexander John Forbes-Leith (1847-1925), the 1st Baron Leith of Fyvie.