A Bevvy of Hussarettes

Count Gruzinsky peered out of the window of his Prague lodgings into the warm June night. Wherever had his daughter got to?....and then by the flickering lamplight that gave a friendly glow to the yard of the inn, he saw her.

Walking proud and erect in her uniform of Honorary Colonel of the Gruskinsky Hussars, drawn sabre in hand, she came elegantly towards the inn. But what are those two points casting shadows with every stride?  Oh no, she has been in one of her sabre contests again and she always casts aside her dolman when she fights..........

Countess Natasha Gruzinskaya was accompanying her father on a Russian diplomatic mission to the court of Empress Maria Theresa. It was June 1756 and the Count was to discuss mutual cooperation with Austria in the face of growing belligerence from the upstart Frederick II of Prussia. This stop at Prague was a convenient rest on the way to Vienna, however, diplomacy is boring and a girl must find her amusement somewhere......
Those Austrian officers of the Dessewffy Hussar Regiment at the tavern opposite had provided her with a slight diversion, but she had floored all three of them without suffering a scratch herself.........And next..... some more fun with her ADC, Anton, who was waiting at the inn's backdoor.

But first she had to pass a group of drunken Dessewffy troopers who were billeted in the courtyard.....
"Wie gehts Fraulein?" said  a voice from the dark. "Ich mochte rollen im Heu mit dich, mag dich auch?"

Countess Natasha Gruzinskaya and the Dessewffy Hussar, 1756
Acrylic on board 12" x 8"

What impertinence she thought and turned her head to give an icy stare. The sabre flashed quickly...and the man would not roll in the hay with anyone ever again.......

Now for a bath and something stiff with Anton.

With grateful thanks to Robbie Rodiss who came up with his interpretation of the Dessewffy Hussars for me when I asked about his favourite Austrian uniform, and then he also said how he liked the Russian Gruzinsky Hussar uniform. Of course I had already done that in Hussarette form, see
Natasha and Count Gregorius, and so I felt compelled to put the two together for this little prequel, showing another example of Natasha's liking for undressed combat. Also thanks again to Russian model Yara for the inspiration through her steely portrayal of a very tough lady hussar.

But the story of my latest batch of Hussarette paintings didn't really start there at all........

I had offered to put on a display of my military paintings and drawings at AMG 17 (see the bottom of my previous post for pictures) and so was in the mood for trying to find suitable subjects. Then all of a sudden there seemed to be a purge of members of the A Military Gentleman Forum and a certain amount of disquiet expressed at various locations on-line. This took an amusing turn when the talented flagmaker, Captain William (Bill ) Walker of Florida USA, designed a beautiful Rococo style cartouche bearing the name "Gentlemen in Exile" in black and gold. Immediately the idea flashed to me that a Hussarette in black and gold uniform would look splendid with Bill's design as a sabretache monogram. Permission was obtained to use it and I was about to start when Colin Ashton cheekily hijacked my plan with the suggestion that the historic Prussian Hussar Regiment Nr 5, Von Reusch, wore black and would also look great as a Hussarette. Colin is already a client of my female military genre so was to be taken seriously, and to cut a long story short, he helped develop the ideas for this lovely painting of a lady whom we have called Rosamunde von Reusch.

Rosamunde von Reusch, HR5, 1757. Acrylic on canvas 16' x 16"

The winking death's head skull was Colin's idea!

Ummmmm.....and the unbuttoned breeches was mine ;-).
Well that Prussian leather reinforcement piece would  have looked
too much like a miss-matched area of flesh otherwise!

This one was also based on Yara at a photo session where she was just wearing hat, waistcoat and boots.....and carbine. So I have developed the waistcoat into a dolman, the fur colpack became a mirliton, complete with cords, plume and trailing wing and we've imagined her just relaxing with unbuttoned breeches. I've not gone for a likeness but for this pose Yara had discarded the warlike facade and I got a flash of the eyes and cheeky smile which I have tried to retain. Colin seemed pleased to take delivery of Rosamunde at AMG 17 and display her on his blog here

And now back to Captain Bill's inspiration.  I needed a pose and face that said "I can be lethal, don't mess with me" because this was to be another of my empowered females. After all she was representing the Exiles from the aforementioned Forum and at that time many seemed like they were metaphorically sharpening their sabres.

Searching my archives I found the lovely young Ukrainian, Ella, wearing her "pelisse" opened, tight leggings, and booted foot up on a sofa and with the slung sabre just being drawn threateningly - perfect. Except she was far too sweet for this role - take a look here if you don't remember her. So I managed to find the required super-cool but slightly pouting expression on line, and this is how Lola ended up.

I hope you will agree that she looks hot, but too hot to handle 

Lady Lola of the Legion des Refuses (Gentlemen in Exile), Acrylic on canvas, 12" x 9.5" 

The LR inside the Captain Bill-designed cartouche stands for Legion des Refuses

Out of respect for the sweet Ella I should say that I got the
 bare breast from elsewhere

I explained to Bill that Lola is not a Gentleman (despite the nod to Ray Davies' eponymous hit song of the 1960s) and so preferred the term "Legion des Refuses" as the parallel for this artist was uncannily like Edouard Manet's founding of the Salon des Refuses for the Impressionist rejects of the 1874 exhibition of the Academie Francaise. Bill was happy with that and so was I because I am  a great fan of Legions in my Imagi-Nations wargaming (a report of a game with lots of them will follow shortly). But I'm not sure which came first, my Legion idea or Bill's creation of Lady Lola's Legion in miniature. The man works so fast he had three units take the field before my painting was finished, and each had a unique flag!  Do take a look at some of them on Bill's Duchy of Beerstein blog, such as this one

So Captain Bill bought the painting of Lola and also took a liking to the "cherry bottomed Hussarette" as he termed Natasha. Both ladies are now safely in his man cave in Florida.

I hope this little story will show that the Hussarette project is alive and well, that I love being steered towards an artistic creation, especially one involving females in uniform, and that would-be clients can participate in the enjoyable enterprise.  Just email me with your ideas or requirements, prices are very affordable.

A NOTE ABOUT COPYRIGHT

I hope you enjoy the pictures. If you do feel the urge to post any of them elsewhere please respect my copyright and give me credit by name and a link to this blog. Thank you, Chris G.

For those unfamiliar with my other work there are plenty more Hussarettes and examples of military and historic paintings, elegant or exotic ladies, and landscapes, on my web pages.

Military:

http://cheltenham-art.com/chrisgregg2.htm

Others:

http://www.cheltenham-art.com/chrisgregg.htm

AMG 17: Shock Horror - Der Alte Fritz concedes in Leuthen big game

The title says it all but such a significant event as this means we have given over the front page of today's Daily Blitz to our Sports, Arts and Culture editor, Sir Joshua Gregg RA, who reports direct from the Leuthen Stadium in Bohemia.  Well it would be direct but the messenger's horse has taken nearly two weeks to get to our office here in the UK West Country.

Austrian line up - Gary, Dave and Robbie 

Tony and Jim my Prussian colleagues

Colin made wise decisions from the end of the table

"It was a cold, snowy day in Bohemia but the crowds were heaving and sweaty with expectation as the Prussian Plunderers took on Vienna United in the big match final to decide the 1757 Championship.

The crowd went wild to watch such a gathering of stars

"Prussia had called on a new American player manager, Jim "Der Alte Fritz" Purky, fresh from his successes at such New World gatherings as the Seven Years War Association and the Bill P. Petite Guerre big game weekend. Fritz had also shown his ability at attracting a crowd by masterminding something esoteric called the Fife and Drum Forum. Vienna took the opposite approach by having a "puppet" leader in Dave "Smiler" Hall, who lulled the enemy by pretending to know nothing, and having a constant dialogue of advice from his two "assistants" - Gary "I know the rules" Phillips, and the legendary Robbie "Canny Gob" Rodiss.  Fritz was not so well served, but constantly gave encouragement to his two subordinates - on the left flank Tony "Scouser" Dillon and on the right,  Chris "Southern Softie" Gregg (no relation to your reporter).

Jim made this vignette specially for the occasion adorned by an exchangeable flag designed by Captain William Walker of Florida

"To sum up, Prussia sent a big attack led by Gregg on the right which was blunted by equal effort from Canny Gob opposite him. They had a constant North-South tussle the whole day turning the air blue with Northeast Gob-sh*** meeting West country charm, until both sides fell back pretty exhausted.  Scouser on the Prussia left wing was a master of the cautious defence, refusing to be enticed near the touch line by Phillips who instead packed the penalty box with his most powerful players (many of whom were on steroids it seemed) until Scouser played his master card and brought on the substitutes from behind him. But Phillips was made of sterner stuff, and he knew the rules better so the surprise did not last long before Scouser's reserves were spent, injured or sent off to the "sin bin".  Meanwhile in the centre Fritz put all his efforts into going for goal despite when consulting the runes they just kept showing him snake eyes! The centre forward, Billy Brummer, kept lobbing high balls out of the stadium and hitting Leuthen church, much to the discomfort of Smiler. Fritz was so forceful he eventually forced Smiler's players back behind the goal where, the latter suddenly found his substitutes bench had arrived at last and he sent them on in the 75th minute of the match.
Despite his success, and Fritz had by now occupied (admittedly very thinly) the whole of the Vienna penalty area, he had run out of reserves and could only fall back reluctantly to his own half while Smiler had gained confidence and was advancing up the pitch.

"Der Alte Fritz looked around and realised all hope of winning the Leuthen game had gone, and gentleman that he is, shook hands with Smiler and conceded before the final whistle had been blown by the excellent referee, Colin "my back hurts" Ashton.

"And now some more atmosphere with excerpts from my post match interviews with the leading game personalities:

DAF, watched like a hawk by Gary, makes use of his 1 on initiative by swivelling a unit

"Der Alte Fritz

Sir Josh:  Jim, defeat on European soil how do you feel?
DAF: Well just being here is a treat for me. It's not about winning but taking part. When I got the message from Prussia to manage the team and play from a central position too I couldn't wait, and it's a real pleasure to be able to work with Colin and see the magnificent Leuthen church with its four round bastions. Too bad my penetration of Vienna's defence was so limited but that's how it goes sometimes. I shoulda known when those snake eyes were staring at me early on that it would end badly but I'd come so far and so had the rest of the team we just had to go on till we were exhausted. I had some admirable help - Tony on the left tried as hard as he could, but up against Gary it was always goin' to be tough. On the right Chris knew what he was doin' and held out all day and never let himself be put off by the constant stream of gobsh*** that I could hear whenever our Billy Brummer stopped making those loud bangs.

Austrians and Reichsarmee infantry defend Leuthen church and village

Billy Brummer opens up on the Leuthen garrison

Dave and Robbie stand in awe of DAF's advance on Leuthen Church

Later DAF saw off the Reichsarmee and piled in against the churchyard

Calculate all your plusses and minuses properly!

View from the Austrian side of Leuthen

DAF' won a foothold but his thin garrison got counter-attacked

Dave's Austrians retake the churchyard

Sir Josh: What did you think of the Austrian performance?

DAF: Got to pay tribute to my opponents today. Even when things weren't goin' well for him there was Dave smilin' through everything. He kept asking for advice from Gary and he got advice from Robbie even though he didn't ask. I saw those two come to blows on the pitch a coupla times but I don't think it was serious. Colin kept playing the advantage rule so didn't intervene, I guess judging that we were better off exploiting their disagreements. I heard Robbie say often "I'll get us stick out to ye, man".... though I don't know what it meant it sounded threatening....Yeah,...they played well.

Sir Josh: And what next for you?
DAF: I'm off to have one of your European beers in the sunny garden, and tonight I'll persuade someone to buy me a Scotch on the rocks, preferably Macallan's.

Our American visitor is the only one sensible enough to wear a hat

"Dave "Smiler" Hall
Sir Josh: Third time at an AMG final Dave, what's the secret?
Smiler: Well Josh, I do what I always do. Be nice to everyone, except Robbie. Act as if I know nothing so everyone seems sympathetic, and learn quickly what the strengths and weaknesses are of the two teams' position on the pitch.
Sir Josh: So how did that help today?
Smiler: Well, Josh, I just pretended the team was short handed, I knew the substitutes would turn up when the pubs closed.  So I let Fritz come on, I didn't expect them to score but we just let them believe it would be easy then hit back with the subs. Gary and Robbie did well on the flanks so we wrapped it by the 80th minute....and I just kept smiling...it never fails.

Not a smile but deep consultation with his adviser as Dave organises the substitutes bench

"Gary "I know the rules" Phillips
Sir Josh:  You're a veteran of big games Gary, we remember your Minden,  Closter Camp , many outings at the Ayton stadium etc, but how did this feel?
Gary:  Well, any game where Colin is the match official is a bit special. You can guarantee attention to detail, slick but fair refereeing, and a convivial reception to any potential argument. Not only that but Colin knows I know the rules better than he does and so he slips me a pocketful of red cards before the game saying "When my back is hurting Gary I rely on you to keep watch - be sure to catch any player trying to recover too soon, we need to avoid unnecessary bloodshed and lasting injuries". Well Colin's a humanitarian, you see, so he cares......about the players' welfare, but me, I just care about scoring goals.
Sir Josh: Yes, we know you were East Anglia's highest scoring player last season.......
Gary: Indeed I was Josh, but back to Leuthen - wanna know my secret?  I've got such good spacial awareness and great hearing that I can sense, even at the far end of the field, and above the noise of the crowd, when opponents are in trouble. Take Gregg for example. He tried to recover too soon so I slapped a red card on him "You can't move now till you've recovered properly says I", and I got him and others several times like that during the match and that helped Robbie and Dave get up the pitch and score......Know the rules......it never fails.

Gary points out a transgression to Colin as DAF's attack goes in. At right Robbie
consults the rule book to try to wriggle out of my attack :-)

Above and below: Gary had been busy with the red cards!

"Tony "Scouser" Dillon
Sir Josh: Tony, you too are a lover of the big game. You are a veteran of the Peter Gilder memorial stadium where they played the biggest games in the 70s and 80s yet I sense that you weren't getting the respect you deserve at Leuthen tonight?
Tony: No Josh I certainly weren't, and I think there were a certain amount of racial prejudice on show in Bohemia today. I would 'ave expected better from this crowd but there were shouts of "show us your t*** Lily Savage" on account of me accent yer see. An' cos I'm from Birken'ead.
Sir Josh: Sorry to hear that Tony, but your tactics nearly paid off, tell us about it......
Tony: Well, I'm a great admirer of the legend that is Stevie Gerrard, and so I played the gentle, careful approach, feeling out me opponent then playing it wide to keep 'im guessin'. Let 'im come to me, overreachin' 'isself, too far from his defenders....then the killer blow. So we 'ad a lorra lorra lads waiting around doing nuthin' and I went among 'em to raise spirits and started 'em singin' - "March on...march on....with 'ope in yer hearts....an' yer'll nev.....er march  a....lone, yer'll nev.....er  march a....lone." 10, 000 voices as one, and then it 'appened. The noise must have got to Fritz cos the boss then unleashed the substitute up the left wing and caught Gary up the a** as he was about to take a corner kick.  We thought the match was won but it weren't to be as Gary seemed to 'ave extra strength (must be the steroids - even 'is hair is a brilliant colour). The man is very, very difficult to beat, but maybe next time.........yer never know, eh? But, hey - Man o' the Match me - the referee's choice of Most Gentlemanly Player, so it's true what they say - ref's as blind as a bat.

Tony's arm waving obviously impresses DAF enough to commit the left wing substitute.
Yes that is a cameo appearance by Phil Olley who had a walk-on part as
"Guest Aston Villa supporter"

Tony's "substitute" cavalry brigade comes on at the far baseline to take Gary
from behind (oops!)

But that yellow tape measure indicates a fierce reaction from Gary's hunky cuirassiers........

.....Which eventually catches Tony in the flank in turn.....so exasperated is DAF's guest vignette that he changes to a red flag.
Fetch me my brown trousers Seydlitz!

"Chris "Southern Softie" Gregg
Sir Josh: Chris you're a veteran of the lower Southern leagues but haven't often had a chance to play with the big boys, how was it for you?
CG: Yeah Josh, you know me luvver, down 'ere in the West oi've spent most o' me loif turnin' out fer Cheltenham Town or vegan Forest Green Rovers, so to run out on the park for the Prussian Plunderers next to yer actual Der Alte Fritz was jus' magic! Leuthen stadium an 'all - Overawed, doesn't begin to describe it m'dear. (See what I did there with the accent - just pretending).  The roar of the crowd as we came out, and then I saw our opponents - tough Gary from the bleak East, and hard man o' the North, but legend in his own lunchtime, Robbie Roddis.  I began to quake with fear until  I saw Smiler Dave and thought "Maybe this won't be so bad after all" but then realised he lives in Nottingham - rubbing shoulders with the top knobs - Perry Twins, John Stallard, Peter Dennis, Ali Morrison and all that lot - they walk on water..........
Sir Josh: You had to face Robbie on the right wing, what was that like?
CG: The whole match was pretty strange but the tone was set early on when Robbie said something like "Reet ye gadgie wazzock, us gannin tae dunch ye canny an' propa t'dae, like, man".  I think he meant he was going to hit me hard! And so he did, time after time, but I kept getting back up until he said "Chris man, ahm in awe o' ye tactics", but I knew he was just employing one of his most famous ploys - sarcasm. I'd watched the other Gary - you know the one who does Walkers Crisps on the telly - give an analysis of it on Match of the Day, so knew what to expect. Robbie also tried to fool me by exposing one of his weakest players, Hans von Reichsarmee, to lure me into the centre, but I gave Hans the slip and went at double speed up the right flank past him. That was when the trouble started as Robbie released some really heavy metal that stopped me in my tracks and I never broke through all day.

Robbie exposes Hans von Reichsarmee

But I send my Cuirassier brigade right past

Which was just as well since his Cuirassier heavy metal appeared directly opposite

Sir Josh: It's rumoured you have a special relationship with the referee, any truth in that?
CG: (looking uneasy) Well....er.....we do share a mutual love of .....art,....and er...women partly out of uniform, ....nothing wrong with that! .....But there was a point in the game where Colin was looking decidedly under the weather so I ran over to help. It seemed his usual physio had gone off to Leuthen market shopping, so I asked what I could do for him. "Rub my back please" he asked, so I did, "Now lower and round a bit", so I did . "Lower than that"....NO Colin, I'm not going any lower people will start talking."
Sir Josh: Too late Chris, they already are!

Gary points Colin in the direction of a rule, the latter at that time supported
by his physiotherapist at the touchline

"Robbie "Canny Gob" Rodiss
Sir Josh: Robbie you are well known for the mantra "every one is entitled to my opinions",  so give us yours on this match.
Robbie: Waal Josh I knew it would be a fun dae when I saw thet charva Joachim von Zieten lookin' a reet bobby dazzla leadin' the charge up the Prussian reet flank. So I brought on the big boys tae fettle 'im except the Southern Softie proved a harder nut tae crack than us thought so I tells me marra, Dave  "Hoy owa here some gadgie from substitutes bench Dave, us needs to be gannin a belta at the howfing geet pile o' Tossers the Prussian have 'ere, man".  "Haddaway an' sh*te", says Dave - cos he speaks Geordie too when he's wi' us, so I knew us were gettin' no 'elp from 'im. Then the Southern Softie gives us a dunch in the kidneys and I jus 'stands there muttering "I don' unnerstan', ....us is propa radgie about this" so us calls owa the ref but he's on Softie's side (they have a "special relationship - know what us means man?). So I told the ref he must be gannin micey and us storms of to the netty as us was bustin' from tae much coffee, like."
Sir Josh: Well thanks Robbie, that was very enlightening."

Hans von Reicharmee gets attacked eventually by Prussian Dragoons

Mutual destruction and repulsion by both sides heavy cavalry 

But then I reform and organise that blow to the kidneys in the form of a flank attack;
what's not to understand?

Robbie: Softie's twocked us measurin' stick, hoy us anawa one owa here, marra, afor ah get radgie an' dunch him propa.
Gary: He must get it correct, please give him a measuring stick
Colin: I'm sure you are right, Gary.

By me as CG
Now tongue firmly out of cheek no offence is intended to anyone. This was a lovely set of people to play with, even Robbie. Colin deserves massive praise for planning and devising the refight, providing the terrain and all the figures and umpiring mostly throughout (he really was in pain only recently recovering from a major operation), so a fantastic performance by him. Thank you Colin. Honours of War rules seemed to stand up well again with a big game although it is extremely bloody when two bodies of cuirassiers hit each other. Colin's game also showed over two days that the same terrain and orbat can produce a totally different game with different players. Please see his blog for a proper account of them
amg17-weekend-tale-of-two-battles-of Leuthen

Always plenty of vignettes on Colin's table

More from me on the rest of the AMG weekend later but for now I leave the last word with Robbie.

"AMG weeken' were pure belta an e'en tho' Southern Softie were there ee kept his political views and hummus eatin' to 'issel' so us was able to say -  Let's just be marras about it, alreet?  Next year - Howay man, the Wild Geese!"

Don't know what I did to deserve it but Robbie gave me this magnificent present.

"The Spy" by Robbie Rodiss, a nod to our mutual working lives

And see his wonderful blog too which is written in propa English independentwargamesgroup.blogspot.co.uk