Description
The sheet of paper that the watercolour was originally pasted to is inscribed Doyle Barracks Oct the 14th 1805 which charts 12 different types of birds that had been shot, either killed or wounded, presumably for target practice. Doyle Barracks was situated on the island of Guernsey.
During the Napoleonic Wars the island of Sicily was continuously occupied by British forces with more than 15,000 men. The picture would have been acquired directly from the artist possibly serving with the Royal Sicilian Reg. The Sicilian Regiment (also known as The Royal Sicilian Regiment of Foot) was a light infantry regiment recruited from Sicily that served with the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, from 1806 to its disbandment in 1816. Traditionally this type of painting would have been sold in peacetime to a foreign tourist but it wasn’t until the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 when British travellers began to visit the island again.
