Saturday 15 June 2019

Slender Billy

This is another contribution to the Quatre Bras game next week – DN/30 H.R.H. The Prince of Orange, in hussar jacket, full trouser and waving his cocked hat. A rather nice vintage casting I’ve painted in accordance with the original Hinton Hunt painting instructions.

I must confess that my image of the Prince has been tainted by watching Paul Bettany’s portrayal of him in Sharpe’s Waterloo. So, although Goya insists he should be known as Slender Billy, he will always be Silly Billy to me.

In reality the Prince was a reasonably experienced officer by the time of Waterloo having served on the Dukes staff in the peninsular. His performance at Quatre Bras was solid but he was later criticised by British writers who naturally enough wanted to big-up the part played by Wellington and his generals.

8 comments:

MSFoy said...

Excellent! - Splendid figure - seems a nice enough boy?

Rob said...

Ooooooh, he's really nice and really shiny - luv him to bits. I do agree that the Prince of Orange is harshly treated in most accounts of Waterloo and it's really about time someone wrote a book about him to give the full story -or perhaps there is one already - anyone?

Stryker said...

Tony, yes ooh er missus!

Stryker said...

Thanks Rob, he has turned out quite well.

Matt said...

It is the natural reaction of a Johnny Foreigner in charge of British troops as opposed to a Brit in charge of Johnny Foreigners.

Still no excuse to dig up half the bloody battlefield for a monument to him getting a scratch on match day however (mumble, mumble, Bloody Frogs, mumble, mumble, Brexit).

Looks good though!

Wellington Man said...

Alten was the real culprit, by all accounts. A lot of running away in that division. The officers interviewed by Siborne were very tight-lipped about it though!

A splendid addition, Ian.
Best regards
WM

Stryker said...

Matt - having climbed to the top of the Lion Mound I agree there was no excuse to dig up the battlefield but I'm not sure we can blame the Prince for that as I believe it was his dad's idea!

Stryker said...

Thanks WM let's see how he performs in our game!