Page 291 - Eye of the beholder

This painting is a large watercolor executed with considerable artistry and deft skill. Norie has rendered the horse with empathy, in the manner the distraught animal appears helpless seeing its owner lying lifeless on the ground. The soldier is shown to be unconscious, having fallen off the horse, but is resting against a boulder at the side. Nevertheless it is the horse, which captures the imagination, delineated by the artist as protecting its master, as the soldier lies in his shadow. In the background can be seen two more horse riders who are Indian soldiers or mutineers with turbans on their heads and restless as both facing each other, are involved in seeing what is happening in the distance. To the right can be seen British soldiers with a canon, which they are pushing, with one of them at the side pointing a gun. The tree its foliage and the surrounding bushes has a tropical flavour. The battle ground appears to be uneven, and apparently a body of water where the British soldier is lying on the upraised mound.
The representation of the body of the horse has been well contoured, yet an emotional expression of loss through its half open mouth, standing over his master with his legs positioned to partially cove him. The viewers’ attention is attracted to the action in the foreground, since there is no distraction from topological elements such as the sky or landscape.
The light in the composition is tropical with bright sunshine and shadows noticeable in the foreground. The rest of the pictorial composition is flooded with an even light that gives clarity to various elements both human, animals, the canon as well as the flora around it. The compositional elements are balanced with the verticals of the trees and the dominant horizontal of the horse and the soldier lying prone. The action and activity is conveyed through movement and gestures, which embroiders the composition with consistent artistry and skill.
Orlando Norie (1832–1901), artist of military subjects, perhaps the most prolific painter of the British army in the 19th century along with Richard Simkin. It has been estimated that Norie alone painted well over 5,000 pictures. Although his family were of Scottish descent, they had moved to the continent, and Orlando was born in Bruges, Belgium on 15 January 1832. He spent most of his working life in Dunkirk where he painted many scenes, primarily in watercolor by the firm of Rudolf Ackermann.
His work was first recognised in the autumn of 1854 when his print of the Battle of the Alma was advertised. This was followed by prints of the Battle of Inkerman and the Battle of Balaclava, all for Ackermann's. This company's Eclipse Sporting and Military Gallery served as an outlet for many of the artist's watercolors. Norie was viewed as the natural successor to Henry Martens, and Ackermann's were so pleased with his work that they occasionally profiled him in exhibitions, one of which was staged in 1873 to showcase his pictures of the recent Autumn Manoeuvres held in September and October 1871 around Aldershot and the Surrey heaths.
A watercolour painting depicting the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro 5 May 1811, by Orlando Norie (1832-1901) is in the collection of the Royal Military College of Canada.
His grave is in the old cemetery of Dunkirk adjacent to the Commonwealth War cemetery. Today, many of his pictures can be seen in British regimental museums and clubs.
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