Two Spanish Cavalrymen in Tricorns, Lithograph by Villegas, Madrid, 1861

An original hand colored lithograph of two Spanish cavalrymen of the eighteenth century, drawn on stone by Villegas and printed by the military lithographic press in Madrid in 1861, from the series of mounted figures made for the Album de la Caballería Española.

Two riders meet on a dusty road beside a low stone wall. The trooper on the left sits a dark horse with a carbine across his saddle and a sword at his side; he wears a black tricorn, a powdered queue, a blue coat with red facings and cuffs, and a broad white cross belt. His companion, mounted on a bay that lifts a foreleg, wears the same blue coat with red waistcoat and cuffs, a tricorn edged in white and red, and carries a sword on a white shoulder belt. Both have heavy mustaches, tall black boots and blue saddle cloths. The uniforms belong to the age of the tricorn, the long eighteenth century of the Bourbon kings, when Spanish horse regiments wore exactly this cut of coat.

The lower margin is lettered "Villegas dibujó y litografió" at left, meaning drawn and lithographed by Villegas, and "lit. Militar S. Bernardino 7. Madrid" at right, the address of the military press in the calle de San Bernardino. Villegas also signed the stone in the lower right corner of the image. The picture sits within a rounded double rule, and the colors were laid on by hand over the printed image, giving the coats their strong blue and red.

The Album de la Caballería Española was compiled by the Conde de Clonard, Serafín María de Sotto, and published in Madrid in 1861 as a history of the Spanish cavalry told through its dress, from the medieval knight to the lancer of Isabel II. Its plates are among the most handsome Spanish military costume prints of the century.

A sheet of this strength and color makes a fine single picture for a study or library, and it pairs naturally with other plates from the same album.

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