King Frederick William III Pointing from a Rearing Black Horse, 1815

An original antique engraving, colored by hand, captioned "W.M FRED. KING OF PRUSSIA." The king sits a black horse rearing to the left and points ahead with his outstretched right arm. He wears a black bicorn with white and green plumes, a blue coat with a red collar and red cuffs, silver epaulettes, a breast star, a pale blue sash, white breeches and black riding boots, with a curved saber in a gilt scabbard at his side. His saddlecloth is crimson with a gold fringe. At the left a cavalryman in pale blue gallops away on a brown horse, carrying a white and blue striped standard with a red eagle on a shield and an eagle on the pole. Beyond him lies a battlefield with burning buildings and smoke, columns of infantry, charging horsemen, and fallen men and horses around a field gun. The face is worked in stipple.

Just below the image the plate is signed "Canton. del. et sculp.t" The publication line reads "Published 18th of May 1815, by Richard Evans, Whites Row, Spitalfields." The sitter is Frederick William III, King of Prussia.

This portrait comes from The History of the Wars occasioned by the French Revolution by William Nicholson, LL.D., printed for Thomas Kelly, 17 Paternoster Row, London. The book offers biographical sketches of the public characters of Europe and an account running through the Congress of Vienna, the escape from Elba, Waterloo and the exile to Saint Helena. Each plate bears its own engraved line naming Richard Evans of Whites Row, Spitalfields, as publisher.

The battle in the background and the standard bearer give this portrait unusual depth and movement.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.