Back in day (1972-76) I eagerly awaited the arrival in my local library of the latest edition of American Heritage. This was a hard bound magazine with always interesting articles on American History. I was esp impressed by a series on battles of the American Revolution that featured a battle painting of some incident during that action as well as a couple uniform figures. These were done by a new young artist named Don Troiani. Although familiar to most of us now, back then he was the new kid on the block. His style of painting was much different then today,; less realistic but with great charm. And the uniform details were amazing to someone just studying the period and learning about it. The battles he did were outstanding. I think Fort Griswold and White Plains were my favorite.
Interestingly through my friends in a reenactment group (the 43rd Regiment/2nd Pennsylvania regiment: Hello Tom and Mark Vogley!) I not only knew people who were models for his paintings but once quickly got to met him. Since then I have always had a affection for his early work much more then his newer more realistic work. So recently it was fun to find on the internet a bunch if his uniform studies from these works. They were from a auction site (Heritage Auctions.com) and had been sold about six or more years ago. I am posting them here for mine and others enjoyment.
If anyone has copies of any of his battle studies from these American Heritage article I would love to see them.
In addition there were a number of illustrations done by Don for the National Park Service. At Saratoga a number of "waysides" (historical markers) include illustrations done by Don with research provided by Tony Tommel in the 1980's. In addition I know through the staff at Guilford Courthouse that he has done a lot of work for them. Many of his illustrations were printed in Tom Baker's book on the battle. Here are a few of these illustrations which are posted on the internet and I believe are in the public domain. If the owners of any of these pictures object to having me post their art here I will remove them right away or give then credit.
Here are some of the Saratoga and Guilford Courthouse art. First from Saratoga NHP:
Here are some from Guilford Courthouse NHP:
It was great fun to go down memory lane, and also see how a famous artist has grown and developed his talent over the years. These are great for using as uniform studies for our miniature soldier. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Again if you have any that have not shown I would love to see them.
