Captain Thomas M Claridge

There was great demand for portrait miniatures amongst the expat community employed by the East India Company though not everyone could afford to commission a leading British miniaturist like John Smart or Diana Hill who both ran successful studios in India. Filling this gap in the market were a handful of minor British artists alongside aspiring Indian artists; their work remains mostly unrecorded. It was to one of these artists that Captain Claridge sat for his portrait most likely at the request of his family back in England for a likeness.

Thomas Michael Claridge was born in 1796, the third child and eldest son of Thomas Claridge and his wife Frances Zachary. Aged 20, he enlisted in what was then the 22nd Regiment of Bengal Native Infantry. By 1832, when he was promoted from Senior Captain to Major, it had become known as the 43rd Regiment. It was whilst in command of his regiment in April 1836 that Claridge was killed by a fall from his horse leaving a widow, Eliza Thomasine Ann Woodhouse, and an eight-year-old son who grew up to follow in his father’s footsteps by enlisting in the 6th Dragoon Guards Carabiniers.

Competently painted with strong colouring, the portrait is housed in an ornately chased frame that is glazed on the reverse to show brown silk. A much-faded and partially obscured label affixed to the frame identifies the sitter as “Major Thomas Michael Claridge died 28th April  . . . from fall . . . horse . . . 1836”.

Ivory Exemption Ref.: 2RPJDM6F