Colonel Tarleton

Banastre Tarleton, British officer and politician, is the subject of this portrait by prominent artist Sir Joshua Reynolds. Reynolds painted the twenty-seven-year-old Tarleton in 1782, portraying him in action on the field as commandant of the much-feared British Legion cavalry in the Revolutionary War. Tarleton was a talented and successful officer who gained a reputation for vanity and ruthlessness from his campaigns in the United States.