Colonel Henry le Blanque

Colonel Henry le Blanque from around 1784 by John Hoppner is a military portrait from the Georgian period. The numerous military portraits in Hoppner's output reflect the prominent role of the armed forces in British society during the wars with revolutionary and Napoleonic France. Hoppner's oil handling favored warm flesh tones over silvery grey half-shadows, producing an immediate vivacity that reflected his admiration for Reynolds and Gainsborough.

The military portrait renders the officer with soldierly bearing, executed in Hoppner's broad painterly technique that gives the composition energy and atmospheric presence.