Artwork
Lt. Colonel Tarleton
Lt. Colonel Tarleton is an ink print by the Romanticist artist John Raphael Smith. It dates from 1782 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
John Raphael Smith’s 1782 colour mezzotint presents Lieutenant‑Colonel Banastre Tarleton in full military dress. The print, executed in the tonal richness of mezzotint, captures the officer standing beside a horse, his posture formal and his attire detailed, offering a clear visual record of a British cavalry figure from the late eighteenth century.
Subject & Meaning
The portrait portrays Tarleton in a black bicorn hat, a light‑blue coat trimmed with gold buttons, and white breeches, his right hand resting on a sword. The accompanying horse, rendered in dark brown, is shown with a decorative bridle, suggesting the officer’s status and the martial confidence associated with his reputation as a cavalry commander.
Technique & Style
Smith employs the mezzotint process to achieve soft gradations of tone, allowing the figure to emerge from a loosely rendered background. Subtle chiaroscuro modelling gives the uniform and horse a three‑dimensional presence, while the slight turn of the horse’s head introduces a hint of movement within the otherwise static composition.
History & Provenance
John Raphael Smith, a prominent British painter and mezzotinter, produced the work during a prolific period of portraiture. Coming from an artistic lineage—his father Thomas Smith was a landscape painter and his son John Rubens Smith later worked in the United States—the print reflects the family’s engagement with both fine art and commercial printmaking.
Context
Created in 1782, the image coincides with the latter stages of the American Revolutionary War, a time when Tarleton’s cavalry actions were widely noted. The portrait thus serves both as a personal commemoration and as a visual document of British military attire and equestrian portrait conventions of the era.
Artist & collection
Artist
John Raphael Smith (25 May 1751 – 2 March 1812) was a British painter and mezzotinter. He was the son of the landscape painter Thomas Smith and the father of John Rubens Smith, a painter who emigrated to the United States.
