That Portrait Again & The Man Himself

 

Frederick Gustavus Burnaby

by James Jacques Tissot
oil on panel, 1870
19 1/2 in. x 23 1/2 in. (495 mm x 597 mm)

© National Portrait Gallery, London                                                              Photo: Hugo Burnand

The Corinthian Column has just kindly pointed out the Tissot painting was doubtless an inspiration for Hugo Burnand's photographic portrait of HRH The Prince of Wales on his 60th Birthday.  

Now you may think that Frederick Gustavus Burnaby (1842-1885) looks a touch effete in this painting but he was reputed to be the strongest man in the British Army and was said to have carried a pony under one arm.  

He entered the Royal Horse Guards in 1859 but, restless for active service,  found adventure in balloon ascents, travel and exploration. As a correspondent for The Times he reported on General Gordon’s expedition to the Sudan, reaching Khartoum;  and made a famous winter journey on horseback across three thousand miles of the Russian steppes.  His account of that,  A Ride to Khiva (1876),  became a best seller.

A further book On Horseback through Asia Minor (1877)  described action against the Russians whilst he fought on behalf of the Turks.  Not content with that, he crossed the English Channel in a hot air balloon in 1882 and  acted as a military intelligence officer in The  Sudan under General Valentine ‘Pasha’ Baker.  Burnaby was killed by a spear to his throat at the hand of Dervish forces at the Battle of Abu Klea in 1885. 

References: The National Portrait Gallery; Wikipedia.