Oick On Horseback
"It was a Beaunese sheltie, of about twelve or fourteen years of age, yellow as an orange, without any hair on its tail, but abundance of galls on its legs, and which, whilst carrying its head lower than its knees, yet managed gallantly its eight leagues a day."
Anyone who has read the book will not fail to recognise Dumas's description of the horse that propelled Dartagnan from the parental home to Paris. When Dumas wrote "The Three Musketeers" in 1844, he could assume his readers would be familiar with horses and popular prejudices towards their appearance: we can be sure that the colour is not intended to recommend the animal to us.
It seemed to me, at the time of painting, that such a apparition might, in this case, suit admirably. On reflection, it seems my imagination has gotten the better of me: I have produced some poor oick mounted on a nag that no gentleman of quality would be seen dead on. Oh well, I shall try and palm it off on visiting generals.
6 comments:
Morning Andy,
Your Suren general and his horse look nice. . . despite your misgivings.
Best Regards,
Stokes
As soon as I read your disapproving comments about the horse I thought of Dartagnan's yellow horse . . . and lo, you had too.
-- Jeff
ha ha
It is a darn sight better than the nag Monsieur d'Artagnan rode! Maybe the officer is of a very provincial family... commander of some militia or similar rabble?
I'm leaning to the idea of making him the CO of my artillery: this arm was generally looked down upon by the noblesse and gentry.
Well, for what it's worth, I like him and would gladly use him on the tabletop were I ever to have the opportunity. :) I might just have to imitate this paint job, actually, when I get back to painting my own.
Doesn't seem to be anything wrong with him, looks great
-- Allan
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