Having painted so many French Cavalry figures , with so many depicted with expensive Tiger or leopard shabraque did they really ride into battle with this item considering in conjunction with a couple of horses it would probable be akin to taking a Mercedes S class AMG off road
Anyone know the real situation

Yes

Dear Ron, from what I've gathered, there was a mindset of, "If I'm gonna die today, I'm gonna do it in style..." You might as well look good while you're at it. Plus, considering the cost of the things, which must've been a comparative fortune, maybe that factored into their decision making.

I was thinking along those lines myself

I think that particularly with French cavalry, Ron, there was also a sharpened
sense of elan - you know all Vive l'Empereur and Gauloises and garlic. Think of
old Gabriel Feraud ....can't quite see him doing his stuff half heartedly...can you ?

Mike

Do contemporary paintings offer any guidance here?
I suppose they were not all ‘embellished’.

Adrian

Yea a bunch of flash chappies ,thats why I like to paint them

Hey Mike, Gabriel didn't look so "Vive L'Emporeur" at the end of the film did he. Superb film though, loved the Russian scenes. Ray

True, Ray, a great movie. It's said that the end of the film is but an allegory of the Emperor
himself. A defeated Feraud stares from his hillside, as Bonaparte does from St Helena ...both
of them coming to terms with their fate.

Mike

PS Just a thought...perhaps the same sort of thing is happening in Mar-a-Lago...eh?

Took me a while to work out who GF good movie .I read the book in the seventies long before the film , great book.

Agree with you, Ron, one of Conrad's short stories as I remember. All too often films
don't match the original book do they? But Ridley Scott's version - apart from one or
two shortcomings - is visually stunning and captures the Elan thing beautifully. I too
am a Napoleonic fan and find such figures irresistible.

Mike

Has any of you read 7 Men from Gascony, by R.F.Delderfield. Brilliant story about 7 Soldiers from a French Napoleonic Light Infantry Regt. Ray.

iors

No but sounds interesting , also the memoirs of Charles Parquin is a great read even though all wine women and food is of excellent taste
Then again he was a Chasseur

PS is Amazon just taking the piss : seven men from Gascony hard back Nine hundred quid,paper back a fiver

Ron, Buy the Paperback, it's worth every penny. Although it's fiction, the stories are taken from first hand accounts of French soldiers at the time. It starts around 1808-9 and goes right through to Waterloo. It truly deserves a film version. Ray

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