The Painting
A watercolour measuring 16½" x 21½".
Signed J. Sanderson-Wells.
About the Artist
John Sanderson-Wells RBA, RI (1872-1955) was a painter of equestrian subjects and
portraits. He studied at the Slade and at Julien’s, Paris, and lived in Banbury and
later in London. He exhibited at the Royal Society of Artists, Birmingham (10), Fine
Art Society (38), Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (3), Royal Academy (38), Royal Society
of British Artists (41), Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours (138), and Royal
Institute of Oil Painters (14).
The Subject
A mounted Grenadier Guards officer in royal procession through the Mall, London;
thought to be King George VI in 1937. The painting shows guardsmen street-lining
on the Mall, backing onto St James’s Park. According to the Curator of the Guards
Museum in Wellington Barracks, the equipment being worn by the soldiers was reduced
to the level shown in the painting in 1936-7. At the same time, the black knee boots
worn by mounted officers were replaced with overall trousers.
The central figure has been identified by the Museum Curator as a Grenadier Guards
Officer (he has a white plume on the left side of his bearskin), who is also a Garter
Knight (he wears the blue sash and star of the Order of the Garter). His saddlecloth
indicates a Colonel’s rank on the hindquarters. HRH The Duke of Connaught KG was
Colonel of the Grenadiers in the period 1936-7 and no other Garter Knight was serving
in the regiment. However, the Duke would have been quite elderly by this time and
unlikely to be riding (he was born in 1850 and died in 1942). The probable identity
of the figure is therefore King George VI after his accession in 1937, on a Trooping
of the Colour before the Second World War. The horse is finely depicted, showing
Sanderson-Wells’s expertise in equestrian painting.
