By the beginning of May 1858, Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, northern India, was the last stronghold of Indian independence under the leadership of Khan Bahadur Khan Rohilla, who had declared himself nawab of the city.
General Colin Campbell, 1st Baron Clyde, along with Captain George Stewart and Sir William Mansfield, led the British Army and a number of East India Company troops and recaptured the city in a day.
The artist, Lt Gen Henry Hope Crealock (1831-91), made sketches throughout his time in the army, some of them used in Sketches of the Campaign in India that was published in 1861 using photographic reproductions of paintings and drawings by Joseph Hogarth. Accompanying an exhibition of albumen prints at the London Photographic Society, Hogarth also published a booklet listing 36 such drawings including the present work.
Later in life Crealock spent a great deal of time in Scotland deer-stalking and his Deer-Stalking in the Highlands of Scotland (1892) is a definitive text on the subject.
This sketch was originally bought at a regional auction by the vendor.
Family talent
Incidentally, Henry’s nephew John Mansfield Stradling was another talented draughtsman who served in the British Army. Although he resigned his commission in 1898 to become an artist, he rejoined and served in the Boer War and on the staff in the First World War.
His Middlesex Imperial Yeomanry Queen’s South Africa Medal and British War Medal pair was sold in July last year at Bosleys for £320 (plus 20% buyer’s premium).
