La Vivandière, twenty-first steel-engraving and thirtieth serial illustration for Charles Lever's Jack Hinton, The Guardsman, Part 10 (October 1842), Chapter LI, "A Mishap." 8.9 by 13.9 cm (3 ½ by 5 ½ inches), vignetted, facing p. 323. [Click on the illustration to enlarge it.]
Passage Illustrated: The Unexpected Leader of the French Cavalcade
A kind of low, unbroken sound, like the tramp of cavalry over grass, awoke me; but still, such was my drowsiness that I was again about to relapse into sleep, when the sound of a manly voice, singing at the foot of the rock beneath me, fully aroused me. I started up, and, peeping cautiously over the head of the cliff, beheld to my surprise and terror a party of French soldiers stretched upon the greensward around a fire. It was the first time I had ever seen the imperial troops, and notwithstanding the danger of my position, I felt a most unaccountable longing to creep nearer and watch their proceedings. The sounds I had heard at first became at this moment more audible; and on looking down the glen I perceived a party of about twenty dragoons cantering up the valley. They were dressed in the uniform of the Chasseur Légers, and in their light-blue jackets and silvered helmets had a most striking and picturesque effect.
My astonishment at their appearance was not diminished by the figure who rode gaily along at their head. She was a young and pretty-looking girl, dressed in a blue frock and jean trousers; a light foraging-cap, with the number of the regiment worked in silver on the front, and a small canteen suspended from one shoulder by a black belt completed her equipment. Her hair, of a glossy black, was braided richly at either side of her face, and a couple of bows of light blue attested a degree of coquetry the rest of her costume gave no evidence of. She rode en cavalier; and the easy attitude in which she sat, and her steady hand on the bridle, denoted that the regimental riding-school had contributed to her accomplishments. I had heard before of the Vivandières of the French army, but was in nowise prepared for the really pretty figure and costume I now beheld. [Chapter LI, "A Mishap," pp. 322-323]
Commentary: The Unexpected Horsewoman is a Curiosity, a Vivandière
The unusual rider at the head of the French cavalry unit presents Phiz with yet another opportunity to depict a lithe horse at a gallop, and has the additional artistic benefit of giving Phiz the opportunity to depict an unconventional young horsewoman with a fine figure. She is, a Vivandière or a Cantinière, a soldier's wife attached to a military regiment as a sutler or a canteen-keeper who sells wine to the soldiers in their off-duty hours. Lever prefers the older term, "Vivandière," which fell out of use in the early years of the French Revolution in France itself, but continued in use elsewhere in Europe, as well as in South America. Originally they were the wives of provisioners responsible for rations, rather than, as Lever seems to imply, female soldiers (femmes soldats), who were banned from French armies by a series of laws and regulations passed by the National Convention from April through October, 1793. But the Bourbons upon the defeat of Napoleon had reinstated the term and function of the regimental Vivandière.
The illustration abruptly alerts serial readers to the fact that in the October 1842 instalment Hinton would be transferred to the Peninsula Campaign with the Twenty-Seventh, a marching-regiment that initially has to participate in the October 1812 retreat of Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese army from Burgos. The pursuing French armies, and starvation, thinned Wellington's ranks that autumn. However, Lever now jumps ahead to the British spring counteroffensive and 1 June, 1813, when Hinton is serving a a despatch rider. From being overcome by fatigue and resting, hidden in a grove, Hinton is suddenly awakened by the arrival at a nearby bivouac of French troops, who prepare a sumptuous feast for the elegant Vivandière, Mademoiselle Annette. As he is enjoying the odours emanating from their encampment, his horse betrays his whereabouts, and Hinton is captured. But at least his captors offer him their "bill of fare," and Annette grills him a chicken breast — poor recompense, perhaps, for the French seizing the correspondence that he has been charged with delivering.
Phiz establishes the singular character of the Vivandière, Mademoiselle Annette, at the head of the monthly instalment. He suggests her daring nature by having her look at the readers directly, and by how she rides astride rather than sidesaddle. And her horse is far more impressive than those of the cavalry unit to the left of the frame. But the galloping of her horse is not aas vigorous as that of other horses that Phiz has drawn for Lever novels.
Two similar equestrian illustrations from a later Lever work illustrated by Phiz, The Martins of Cro' Martin: Maurice Scanlan, Attorney-at-Law (January 1855), and A Spill (November 1855).
Related Material
- "Phiz" — artist, wood-engraver, etcher, and printer — and the new reproductive processes
- "Phiz: 'A Good Hand at a Horse'" — A Gallery and Brief Overview of Phiz's Illustrations of Horses for Defoe, Dickens, Lever, and Ainsworth (1836-64)
- The Novels of Charles Lever, 1839-72
- Phiz's Forty-four Illustrations for Lever's Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon (1840-41)
- Phiz's Forty Illustrations for Dickens's Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-44)
Scanned image and commentary by Philip V. Allingham. [You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose, as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image, and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
Allingham, Philip V. "Hablot Knight Browne: A Good Hand at a Horse." Illustration, 73 (Autumn 2022): 36-40.
Lester, Valerie Browne. Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens. London: Chatto and Windus, 2004.
Lever, Charles. Jack Hinton, The Guardsman. Illustrated by Hablột Knight Browne (Phiz). London: Downey & Co., 1901. [First published serially in The Dublin University Magazine January through December 1842; and subsequently in a single volume, Dublin: William Curry, Jun. December 1842, pp. 396. Illustrated with wood and steel engravings by H. K. Browne: 27 full-page plates. 8vo, 396pp. Boston: Little, Brown, 1894; New York: Croscup, 1894. 2 vols.
Stevenson, Lionel. Chapter VI, "Editor, 1841-1843." Dr. Quicksilver: The Life of Charles Lever. London: Chapman and Hall, 1939. 92-107.
Sutherland, John A. "The Dublin University Magazine." The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford U. P., 1989, rpt. 1990, 200.
Thomson, David Croal. Life and Labours of Hablột Knight Browne, "Phiz". London: Chapman and Hall, 1884.
Created 8 June 2023