This watercolour of a Highland drummer in France is based on observation but the artist, 18 year-old Noél-Dieudonné Finart, was not concerned with accuracy when it came to military uniform detail. The title of the work is ‘Tambour Écossais de l’Armée Anglaise’ and does not claim to show a particular regiment. The jacket worn by the drummer is shown as yellow with red facings, a reverse colouring of the drummer’s regiment which would have worn red coats with yellow facings. There was no Highland Regiment in France in 1815 with yellow facings, the closest would have been the 78th Ross-shire Buffs, who had buff facings. However, this does give us an idea of how drummers of the 79th Regiment looked. They would have worn green jackets with red facings and red shoulder wings as seen here. The feather bonnet was not so tall in 1815 and this painting shows an interesting stage in its development. The hackle is wrongly painted as red over white but the infantry at that time wore white over red. The painting comes from the Royal Collection which has 308 of Finart’s works.
