The Grenadier

Showing here is an officer of the Grenadier Company, 10th Foot wearing a scarlet coat with silver laced buttonholes, yellow facings and a silver epaulette. His belt plate has a distinctive crescent-shape on it.

The miniature is set in what appears to be the original gold frame with a foiled blue glass border and blue glass on the reverse.

The soft handling of the sitter’s features and the opaque paint used on the coat are stylistic traits of Archibald Robertson’s work. Born in Aberdeen in 1765, Robertson left these shores in 1791 to settle in New York where he married and had a large family. The 10th Foot were in Jamaica in 1795 so it’s feasible that this was painted in America. Robertson’s paintbox is held in the Rosenbach Museum in Philadelphia.