Left: Ordered on Foreign Service, by Robert Collinson (1832-1898). 1863. Oil on paper laid on canvas. H 31 x W 23 cm. Collection: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, accession no. WA1958.57.4. Bequeathed by Archibald G. B. Russell, C.V.O., 1958. Right: Farewell to the Light Brigade. Oil on canvas. H 125.6 x W 98.3 cm. Collection: National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Library, accession no. 1975-8510. Obtained as a result of a direct claim of redundant material from the nationalised railway, 1956. Images downloaded from Art UK for purposes of academic research. Text by George Landow and Jacqueline Banerjee.
According to the short commentary on the Art UK website, Ordered on Foreign Service has been thought to show "an officer of either the 8th or 10th Hussars, probably leaving for the Crimea in 1854," who "leans out of a railway carriage to say goodbye to his wife, while a porter signals that the train is ready to depart. This is probably the 'finished sketch' of the subject exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1864."
A review of paintings exhibited at the British Institution in early 1863 describes the work in more detail. Having already mentioned Collinson's A Summer Ramble (numbered 276 in the exhibition), the Reader's critic says, not at all approvingly,
"Ordered on Foreign Service"(41), by Mr. Collinson, represents an officer in full regimentals fresh from the military tailor, leaning from the window of a first-class carriage in a train that has just been signalled to start by the station-master; the third and principal figure in the group being a lady in fashionable attire, who is taking a last fond look at the aforesaid officer. All his luggage will probably be left behind, where it is at present usefully arranged as a foreground. The expression of the sentiment is vulgar; the rendering of the facts untrue. Officers do not start on foreign service figged out as if for a levée; neither do railway porters absent themselves from the luggage in favour of endearing farewells. Still, this is just one of those pictures which appeal to a certain and numerous class of purchasers and will be, or probably has been, purchased for engraving. [170]
Not only is the painting felt to be "untrue" in some ways, but the sentiment is felt to be "vulgar," appealing to popular taste rather than to the more discriminating. The comment seems rather unfair. On top of the luggage is what is obviously a woman's umbrella, suggesting that the assorted ensemble belongs to someone else, who has not yet caught a train, while a regimental outfit may well be pristine at the time of departure.
Collinson must have been disappointed by the review but perhaps glad to have the prospect of a popular audience. The prediction seems to have been accurate: the other, much larger version of the painting shown above, this time entitled Farewell to the Light Brigade, is now, as stated previously, in the Science and Society Picture Library of the National Railway Museum. Despite the overall similarity of the commposition, there are noticeable differences, particularly in the costumes of both the main figures, and also in the arrangement of the luggage. But Collinson has evidently taken no heed of the foregoing criticisms.
The existence of this later and larger version suggests the work's success. A parting at a railway station makes an eminently suitable subject for a Railway Museum's collection.
Bibliography
“The British Institution.” The Reader. 14 February 1863: 170.
Farewell to the Light Brigade. Art UK. Web. 12 March 2024.
Ordered on Foreign Service. Art UK. Web. 12 March 2024.
Created 26 November 2019
Last modified 12 March 2024