Viscount Hardinge of Lahore, Governor-General of India, accompanied by his two sons and his aide-de-camp Colonel Wood, on the battlefield after the victory at Ferozeshah during the First Anglo-Sikh War by Sir Francis Grant (1803-78), PRAoil on canvas, in the original gilt frame with hand-painted plaque 51.5 x 70 cm.Footnotes:ProvenanceChristie's, Visions of India, 5th October 1999, lot 239.The painting is based on a sketch executed on the spot at this significant moment by the Hon. Charles Stewart Hardinge (Lord Hardinge's eldest son). He appears in the painting, wearing a white solar topee, immediately behind Hardinge. He acted as his father's secretary throughout that time, and his drawings were mostly made during their official visits to various places, including Lahore and Delhi. He illustrated Recollections of India, one of the most important plate books on the Punjab and Northern India. This was published in 1847, funded by his wealthy friends, in a lavish large-folio in both coloured and uncoloured format.Behind Hardinge and his party are Indian lancers with their red and white pennants, probably members of his bodyguard as Governor General. The tents to the left of the work are a reminder that Hardinge bivouacked with his own troops before the battle began. In the background to the left can be seen the Sikh ammunition store exploding, which caused many casualties on both sides. The French gilt-hilted sword at Hardinge's waist had previously belonged to Napoleon. It had been presented to him by the Duke of Wellington after the Battle of Waterloo, at the Grand Review of the Prussian Army near Sedan in France in 1817. Wellington took the sword from his waist and presented it to Hardinge. The sword remained in the family and was sold at Christie's, Trafalgar Bicentenary: The Age of Nelson, Wellington and Napoleon, 19th October 2005, lot 164.A soldier and administrator, he served in the Peninsular and Napoleonic wars with distinction. The Duke of Wellington took Hardinge onto his personal staff for the Flanders Campaign. He was appointed as Wellington's liaison officer on Field Marshal Blücher's staff, and it was while with the Prussians at Ligny that on 16 June 1815 a stone driven up by roundshot shattered his left hand. The subsequent amputation prevented him from being present at Waterloo two days later, although he managed to compile a final report for the Duke.Later Hardinge became a Conservative Member of Parliament. In the administration of the Duke of Wellington, he served as Secretary of War (1828), and again in that of Sir Robert Peel (1841-1844). In 1844 Hardinge was sent to India to replace his brother-in-law, Lord Ellenborough, as governor-general. The appointment was made at the suggestion of the Duke of Wellington. As a result of the disorder in Punjab, he discreetly reinforced the garrisons on the North-West frontier. By November 1845 he had doubled the forces there, raising them to thirty thousand men and sixty-eight guns. On 11 December 1845 the Sikh army crossed the River Sutlej, beginning the first Anglo-Sikh war. Waiving the right to the supreme command, Hardinge offered to serve under Sir Hugh Gough as second-in-command. On 18 December Gough defeated the Sikhs at Mudki with the loss of several thousand men and seventeen guns. Then on 21 December as second-in-command Hardinge led the centre at Ferozeshah. He camped with the troops, under fire on the field, and commanded the left wing of the army in the long and bloody conflict the following day, which resulted in the withdrawal of the Sikhs behind the River Sutlej. 'Ferozeshah, though it had been so obstinately contested, convinced most of the Punjab notables that the war was lost. The Lahore Durbar opened negotiations with the British, and many individual chiefs tried to make terms for themselves'. (Sir Penderel Moon, The British Conquest and Dominion of India, London 1989, p. 599). In the same capacity, Hardinge was present when the Sikh entrenched camp at Sobraon was stormed, with heavy loss, on 10 February 1846. The autonomy of the Sikh nation, though diminished, was to be preserved with its army reduced in numbers. Its guns were to remain in the hands of the victors, with certain portions of territory annexed to the East India Company's dominions. A British Resident, Henry Lawrence, with ten thousand men to support him, was established in Lahore. So on 8 March 1846 the Kingdom of Lahore finally came to terms with the East India Company. The news of the British successes created an enormous impression at home. Hardinge received the thanks of Parliament, and was raised to the peerage under the title of Viscount Hardinge of Lahore and of Durham. In addition, at the behest of the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, Parliament unanimously voted him a pension of £3,000 a year and for his next two heirs. The East India Company also granted him a pension of £5,000 a year. He was however widely criticised for his subsequent cost-cutting which many blamed for the military failures during the Mutiny, or Rebellion, of 1857. He was also responsible for the introduction of the Lee-Enfield rifle, with its fat-covered cartridges, one of the inciting reasons behind the Rebellion.The painting was published by P.& D. Colnaghi in London in 1849, engraved by Samuel William Reynolds II (1794-1872).Sir Francis Grant (1803-1878), President of the Royal Academy, already enjoyed a distinguished reputation for equestrian portraits. In 1840 the acclaim given to his painting Queen Victoria and Lord Melbourne riding in Windsor Park (in the Royal Collection, Windsor) ensured his position as the most successful and fashionable portrait painter of his day. Some of the greatest politicians of the Victorian age sat for him, including Palmerston and Disraeli. Grant, a close friend of the Hardinge family, was a dominant figure in the Victorian art world, elected President of the Royal Academy in 1866. Grant painted a three-quarter length portrait of the Governor-General, which is still with the Hardinge family. Another version is in the National Portrait Gallery, illustrated in C. A. Bayly (ed.), The Raj: India and the British 1600-1947, London 1990, pp. 231-232, no. 302. In the same sale in 1999 in which this painting appeared, Christie's offered a group of lots (239-50) relating to Hardinge's grandson, Lord Hardinge of Penshurst (1858-1944), who was Viceroy of India 1910-16, and who was responsible when Viceroy for moving India's administrative capital from Calcutta to Delhi, and worked closely with Sir Edwin Lutyens, the chief architect responsible for the lay-out of the new capital.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
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