Table of Contents

• I. First Works in Detroit, 1878-1879
• II. Military History Paintings 1880-1887
• III. The Paris Paintings, 1887-1890
• IV. Works for publisher, George Barrie, 1892-1893
• V. Portraits, 1880-1904
• VI. Drawings and Illustrations, 1880-1909
• VII. Sculpture
• VIII. Later Military Works, 1895-1900
• IX. Genre Works and Final Paintings, 1895-1908
• X. The Book
• XI. Photographs

Cavalry Sketch, c. 1890

Courtesy of The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Vital Statistics

Oil on canvas, 15½ x 24 inches
Signed lr: “W. T. Trego”
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Gift of Edward H. Coates

Commentary

The work is possibly a preparatory study for what became The End of the Charge . . . at Rezonville. The uniforms of the combatants are identical to those in that painting and consistent with those of the units that participated in the battle of Rezonville. It provides a clue as to the color scheme of the lost painting. The Cavalry Sketch may have been inspired by Trego’s viewing of Aimée Morot’s 1886 painting Rezonville, 16 aout 1870, la charge des cuirassiers, which he had seen in the Luxembourg Museum in Paris. There are several similarities in composition, and the blond, heavily mustached soldier turning around in the saddle could be the twin of a prominent figure in Morot’s painting. The Cavalry Sketch can be partially seen hanging on the wall of Trego’s studio in a photo taken there in 1893.

Provenance

Purchased from the artist by Edward Coates, who gave it to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1921

Exhibitions

Philadelphia, 1909: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. This was one of the four Trego paintings put on display at PAFA as a memorial to the artist shortly after his death.
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, James A. Michener Art Museum, June 3-Oct 2, 2011: "So Bravely and So Well: The Life and Art of William T. Trego."

Reference

“. . . a small canvas and, perhaps, the most interesting to a technician “because of the spontaneous sketch like execution shows the horses rushing madly out of the frame and toward the spectator. One hears the din of swaying swords and thundering hoof beats.” (Henry J. Thouron, Philadelphia Public Ledger, August 1909)

Condition

The painting is in good condition

< The End of the Charge, 1889   Sans Souci >

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