Major Robert Roger Commandant Chef (1 results)

A rare French portrait of Maj. Robert Rogers, showing him in his military uniform with musket. This engraving is after the best-known image of Rogers, produced in London in 1776. That image shows him from the knees up and looking to his right, a powder horn at his waist, and with three Native Americans in the background. In this French version he is looking to his left and is pictured from the waist up, and the figures have been removed from the background. Rogers acted as a scout for the 1755 expedition against Crown Point, and in 1756 he became the captain of an independent company of Rangers. He made scores of raids against the French in New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, going as far west as the shores of Lake Huron. His exploits made him the most romantic and famous figure of the war in America. He published A Concise Account of North America and the Journals of Major Robert Rogers in 1765, which brought him further fame and recognition. Paris engravers Esnauts et Rapilly were leaders in the field in the years leading up to the French Revolution, and they printed a series of similarly framed small-format portraits to this image of Rogers, depicting such figures as Descartes, Marie Antoinette, and George Washington. They are perhaps best known for the Galerie des Modes et Costumes Français, a monument to French high fashion in the era of Louis XVI. A scarce portrait of a prominent American. OCLC locates only two copies of this portrait, at the Massachusetts Historical Society and Princeton University. We also find copies in the Anne S.K. Brown military collection at Brown University, the New York Public Library, and the National Army Museum in London. Light soiling. Very good.