J. Capewell, Comic of Amputee Military Veteran, Watercolour, Framed

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Description

A heavily decorated military veteran stands braced against a bare landscape in this characterful ink and watercolour study. The figure … Read more A heavily decorated military veteran stands braced against a bare landscape in this characterful ink and watercolour study. The figure is depicted with two wooden peg legs, a prosthetic iron hook for his right hand, a black eye patch, and a jaunty clay pipe trailing pale grey smoke. Dressed in a dark blue double-breasted frock coat buttoned to the collar and cinched across the torso, his chest displays an extensive row of campaign medals, miniatures, and a military cross. In his left hand he supports himself with a sturdy wooden walking cane, while his peaked service cap bears the initials 'RH', suggestive of a Royal Hospital in-pensioner. Rendered in fine pencil outlines heightened with ink and transparent washes, the work belongs to the late nineteenth-century British tradition of military drolleries and satirical caricatures. The drawing exaggerates the grizzled veteran's features with a sweeping white walrus moustache and weathered expression, contrasting the dark blue folds of the uniform against a softly tinted ground and pale sky. The composition strongly echoes the published comic military illustrations of Major Thomas Strong Seccombe, whose popular works depicting army and navy veterans appeared during the 1870s and 1880s.

The picture is presented in a period glazed dark oak frame with straight-grained timber mouldings and a pale inner slip, surrounding a broad peach-toned card mount. Adhered to the upper left corner of the glass is an early handwritten paper label inscribed in ink 'J Capewell / Rowley / Watercolour', linking the piece to Rowley in the West Midlands, though whether Capewell was the original artist, an amateur copyist, or a previous collector is unrecorded.

Overall external frame dimensions measure 48.5 cm high by 39 cm wide. The watercolour paper displays gentle, even age toning across the sheet along with a few minor faint spots, while the coloured pigments remain clear. The oak frame retains its structural joints with minor surface scuffs and edge rubbing consistent with age. We ship internationally, tracked. Please see our other items for sale, where we combine shipping on multiple lots. We also offer freight shipping for larger furniture pieces. See less