Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.16404

    A giant Swiss Hussar

    Date
    1705
    Creator
    Henry Hunt (British) , Artist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p76
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (paper): 311mm
    width (paper): 186mm
    Subject
    Content object
    Description
    A copy signed by Henry Hunt of a self-portrait of a Hussar who was eight-and-a-half foot tall and in the service of the Elector Palatine. The drawing was shown by John Van de Bemde at a meeting of the Royal Society in April 1705.
    Transcription
    At the top: Portrait du Hussare de S. A. E. Palatine, quia 8 ½ pieds de haut: il la fait luy même, copied per H. Hunt.
    Transcribed by the Making Visible project
    Object history
    25 April 1705: 'Mr Bempde shewed the Picture of an Hussar a Switzer by nation and now in the service of the Elector Palatine; he is 8 foot and an half high. The Picture was drawn by the Hussar himself, who is an Artist, and Mr Hunt was desired to take a copy of it' (JBO/11/70).

    2 May 1705: 'Mr Hunt produced his copy of the Elector Palatines Hussar, and was desired to place it in the Repository among the other things of that nature' (JBO/11/71).

    22 April 1705, 'Nothing remarkable this week[...] went to the meeting of the R. Society, where among other things there was a picture of one of the Electoral princes, Guards, a young fellow, who was 8 foote 1/2 in height, don by the person himselfe, in his livery-habite, with a huge broad-Sword by his side, studdied with gilt plate; sent to a Member of the Society out of Germany’ (The Diary of John Evelyn: Now First Printed in Full from the Manuscripts Belonging to Mr. John Evelyn, ed. by E. S. de Beer, 6 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), V, 591).
    Related fellows
    John Van de Bemde (1650 - 1730) , Merchant
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Switzerland
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > Germany
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