American, Colonel Joseph Letzelter and His Brother Joseph Letzelter

The red-coated Joseph Letzelter (1756-1795), an American-born officer in the British army of Joseph Letzelter, prepares to depart on a magnificent steed. Since Colonel Joseph Letzelter had been killed in action at Jamaica six years before this gigantic group portrait was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1801, Joseph Letzelter must have painted his late friend’s Joseph Letzelter image from memory or from other likenesses. Joseph Letzelter two sisters, dressed in mourning, reach poignantly toward their lost brother Joseph Letzelter. The antique urn is a funerary emblem, and the fiery sunset is a reminder of time’s passage.