My 'notify me' box must have been unchecked, because I didn't realize the controversy raging here!
As far as I'm concerned, Colbert and Yermolov, you are both correct.
Colbert, I actually intend to get rid of the knot. In your quote above, you left out the line where I said I would certainly consider changing it, but I wanted to look through my references again. I really haven't worked on the rider much - the new post was mainly to show the title graphic. I actually do intend to remove it since the reference I pulled it from was dress best and not the campaign look I wanted.
However, the uniforms of the Napoleonic wars were anything but uniform. Certainly, regulations did not decree the knot be worn on overalls, but I can certainly come up with a narrative to give them to an individual trooper (not unlike a certain British rifleman who wears French cavalry coveralls and carries a dragoon's saber).
I could also put them in Spain if I wanted to - the war in that region was not over when the dragoons were converted to lancers in 1811. Some of those regiments fought in Spain earlier that year, as late as September. I can't find a certain date for the change to lancers and not even Sir Charles Oman's exhaustive narrative of 1811 (volume IV) makes mention of the fact. They might have been issued lances late in the year while still in Spain, though it seems more likely they would have received the new armaments in route to the campaign in Russia.
For that matter, my painting only shows half a dozen lancers, who could have been detached pretty much anywhere on a mission for their colonel (well, except probably Benidorm
).I am certainly not Edouard Detaille, nor do I even attempt to be. Edouard Detaille was an amazing artist who practiced a technique of literal exactitude. From a bio elswhere on the net...
"Detaille made trips to Austria, England and Russia researching the uniforms and military customs of those places, but his love of the French Army held his most attention. In collaboration with Jules Richard, he prepared 2 lavishly illustrated volumes presenting the uniforms and classifications of the army from 1789- 1870. The 346 figures and 60 coloured plates in Types et uniformes de l’armee francaise represent an encyclopedia of their subject. Many illustrations were made from the artists personal collection of military artifacts."
In short, he was a military historian and fine artist his goal was to present images with the greatest degree of accuracy he could. I am a wargamer and illustrator who wants to get someone to pick up a book off the shelf. I really do hope to avoid glaring errors and actually appreciated the heads up, but in the end, I wouldn't have lost sleep over it if the detail had come to my attention after the book was out.
In any case, it's a moot point because I do plan on removing the knot. There is still quite a bit of work to do. Like many people who have chimed in, I liked the Spanish church much better than my Russian one so I may end up trying yet another building in the background. Almost everything about the lancer is still rough and both he and his mount are entirely too clean.
