Portrait miniature of an Officer wearing the uniform of 1st (or Royal) Regiment of Dragoons; circa 1796-1805 [1]

Object Description

Hazlehurst was born in Liverpool and practiced as a miniaturist in that city all his life. He exhibited at the Society for Promoting Painting and Design in Liverpool in 1787 and at the Liverpool Academy from 1810 to 1812. Most of Hazlehurst’s sitters were either residents of Liverpool or were passing through to the Port.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth Centuries, Liverpool played a central part in the numerous wars and conflicts through both ship building and as a recruitment base for the Royal Navy, and therefore was a lucrative place for an artist to be based – offering to record small, portable images of loved ones before they left for battle or on expeditions. Given the dating of the uniform in the present miniature we can assume it was painted when Hazlehurst was working from no.9 Rodney Street where he lived from 1793. Rodney Street was built only ten years earlier c.1783-4 and by this point was a very affluent place to live, providing us with a glimpse into Hazlehurst’s success in this trade.

[1] With thanks to Stephen Wood for his identification of the uniform (. He adds ‘Given (the sitter’s) apparent age, I would think that he could be described as a junior, or troop, officer. The clincher is his buttons: 1 over D within an inverted horseshoe – recorded as the regimental buttons for the period.’

Object History

Provenance: Sotheby’s, London, 16 December 1998, lot 49 (£3772); Private Collection, UK (since 1998)

Object Details