Portraits drawing of soldiers in gouache colours by my brother Marco

[Claudio]

Dear forumites!

I would like to present my brother's last work of art, depicting a Reichswehr's General (Heye). We checked that all details are correct. It's a quite time consuming activity but during this voluntary isolation time due to the pandemic of Coronavirus, it keeps my brother occupied.

Your comment are welcome. If somebody of you has some nice pictures of Imperial officers wearing their headgear and medal bar to share for my brother's next project would be quite great! In fact I noticed that is quite difficult to find very good quality portraits of officers wearing both their fine headgear (Pickelhaube - spiked helmet, Tschako, Tschapka or any other kind of headgear). Usually the portraits (photographs) they were mostly done without headgear, in order to show the whole face.

Here is my brother at work, painting:

Here's the finished work of art:

Here's the research being done:

 

Ordenschnallen Wilhelm Heye.dotx

Edited April 10, 2020 by Claudio

[Claudio]

This is his next project: Major Wilfsdorf Saxon JB12 later Generalleutnant (von). These photographs of such tiny and elusive elite units are quite difficult to find on the net.

 

[BalkanCollector]

WOW, great job! Your brother is so skilled.

[Paul C]

That is spectacular. Here is one for you, Major General Karl Gronau (1855-1945)

[Claudio]

1 hour ago, Paul C said:

That is spectacular. Here is one for you, Major General Karl Gronau (1855-1945)

Wow, thanks Paul! That's quite a spectacular display of orders! 

Do you think that in the case of Wilfsdorf's bar the ribbons on the Reussisches Ehrenkreuz 3th class and the Belgian Leopold order with swords (officer class) are both in violet colour... maybe the one for the REK3 is a bit more darker violett. Usually I saw these ones worn by officer without swords being with the violett ribbon ^see my second picture of a Wurttembergian Cavalry staff officer (UR19).

 

What do you think about it?

Edited April 10, 2020 by Claudio

[laurentius]

Dear Claudio,

your brother makes lovely paintings, I wouldn't mind having one of his works on my wall. I hope to see more.

Kind regards, Laurentius

[VtwinVince]

Beautiful work. And I also saw that unusual CDV come up on ebay.

[saschaw]

4 hours ago, Claudio said:

Do you think that in the case of Wilfsdorf's bar the ribbons on the Reussisches Ehrenkreuz 3th class and the Belgian Leopold order with swords (officer class) are both in violet colour...

The yellow, red and black striped war ribbon wasn't introduced until late 1914 or early 1915, so you're totally right: a pre-war decoration would necessarily be worn on the purple ribbon.

[Claudio]

Bit by bit is coming along... ?

[JohanH]

Amazing work!

I would also like to have one on the wall. 

Perhaps this could be an interesting photo for a later project. 

Victoria of Baden, Queen of Sweden in uniform and with both medals and pickelhaube. 

 

 

[1812 Overture]

Great portrait!

[Paul C]

Claudio, Sorry I can't answer your question about color. I just don't have the knowledge.

[Claudio]

Thanks for your kind comments... 

I have here a couple of nice portraits of ladies belonging to high nobility pre-1914 in Prussian uniforms as well.

About Queen Victoria's portrait I already saw it... She was chief of Prussian Infantry regiment. Nevertheless thank you Johann very much for showing. 

 

[Deruelle]

Hi Claudio

 

Your brother makes nice painting. Congrats.

 

Here is more information about WILSDORF Viktor von

I hope it will help

Regards

Christophe

[ccj]

Absolutely wonderful painting of Heye. I bet a painting of GeneralLt Karl Gronau would look excellent.

 

 

[Trooper_D]

On 11/04/2020 at 18:53, Claudio said:

Thanks for your kind comments... 

I have here a couple of nice portraits of ladies belonging to high nobility pre-1914 in Prussian uniforms as well.

Thanks for showing the astonishing image of Princess Louise Margaret, Duchess of Connaught as she became after marriage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Louise_Margaret_of_Prussia

A slightly larger image can be found on the UK Royal Collection web site,

https://www.rct.uk/collection/2810025/the-duchess-of-connaught-1860-1917-as-colonel-in-chief-of-the-64th-infantry

Apart from being an extremely handsome portrait, two and a half things strike me about this photo. First, I hadn't realised how shiny a new Pickelhaube could be.

Secondly, I never expected to see a UK Order of St John medal worn court mounted in the Prussian style. Rather nice! My second and a half observation is that she is wearing it back-to front as the Lion should be in the top right quadrant rather than the Unicorn (see below) 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_Saint_John_(chartered_1888)#/media/File:Star_-_Venerable_Order_of_St_John.jpg

 

[OvBacon]

1 hour ago, Trooper_D said:

 

Secondly, I never expected to see a UK Order of St John medal worn court mounted in the Prussian style. Rather nice! My second and a half observation is that she is wearing it back-to front as the Lion should be in the top right quadrant rather than the Unicorn

 

From a quick search it looks like that is a very common mistake and I see a lot of examples of mounted medals accidentally flipped. But I also found a breast star that must have been rotated incorrectly when they attached the hinge. 

[Wild Card]

Hey Claudio!

Fantastic work by your brother, my congratulations to him. With regard to General Heye’s awards, you might find this interesting.

Best wishes to you both,

Wild Card

 

 

[Claudio]

12 hours ago, Wild Card said:

Hey Claudio!

Fantastic work by your brother, my congratulations to him. With regard to General Heye’s awards, you might find this interesting.

Best wishes to you both,

Wild Card

 

 

Thanks Chris! I’ll tell him, your opinion is very much appreciated! ????????

beautiful miniatures... are these in your collection?! ??? ???

[Wild Card]

Yes. 

Fairly recent addition at that.