PORTER, Robert Ker.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Letters from Portugal and Spain, First edition. Porter's book is "amongst the first published personal accounts of the war" (Daly), "remarkable for its dramatic representation of the suffering of individual British subaltern officers" (Ramsey, p. 83). From 1808 Porter (1777-1842) campaigned with Sir John Moore, whom he had met in Sweden, until the general's death at Corunna. The attractive plates are based on Porter's sketches.An artistic prodigy - admitted to the Academy at the age of fifteen - Porter made his reputation as a painter of spectacular battle scenes and panoramas. In 1804 he was invited to Russia to join the tsar's court as historical painter, being employed in decorating with vast paintings the Admiralty Hall, St. Petersburg. Between 1806 and 1811 he travelled across Europe, visiting Finland, Sweden and Germany

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