Alexandre-Jean Dubois-Drahonet

Alexandre-Jean Dubois-Drahonet, a French portrait painter, was born in Paris in 1791. He also executed a great number of sketches of various national and military costumes, some of which are at Windsor. He died at Versailles in 1834.

In 1828 King William IV of Great Britain commissioned a set of 100 small paintings in "oil on card", measuring 34.9 x 25.5 x 0.2 cm, illustrating the various uniforms of the British military. Most of these remain in the Royal Collection. Framed groups of them can be seen in a photograph of the Equerry’s Room in Windsor Castle of around 1900. A range of ranks are shown, and the models all named; whether they were all as tall and slim as he shows them might be doubted.

He also produced a number of portraits of young boys in military uniform, including one of the Duke of Bordeaux in the Bordeaux Museum.