Charlton was a prominent painter and a frequent illustrator for The
Graphic. He is well known for his battle scenes although he never
served as a war artist. His work was widely shown including
exhibitions at The Royal Academy and the Paris Salon.
He studied In London under John Dawson Watson, one of the leading
illustrators of the his generation. Charlton is especially known for
his depiction of horses whether on the racecourse, in the hunting
field, or on the battlefield, and many of his battle scenes include
horses charging or hauling guns. Indeed in three interesting pictures:
After the battle, Sedan, Bad news from the Front, and
Abandoned, the emphasis is almost entirely on the loose horses.
In the first picture, the horses are charging headlong into the
foreground, presumably after a failed charge. The second work shows an
incident from the Suakim campaign of March 1885 and was based on a
sketch by Surgeon N.C. Ross of the Royal Marines. Ross described
seeing a number of horses of the Bengal Lancers galloping back to
headquarters in confusion. Concluding that a terrible disaster had
befallen McNeill's advance column. The final picture based on a true
incident depicts horses abandoned on the seashore by the British Army
during the Peninsular War.
The two main paintings to emerge from the The Great War, both
exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1915, highlight the suffering of
horses in war: French Artillery crossing the flooded Aisne (Laing Art
Gallery, Newcastle) and Retreat from the Marne (Shipley Art Gallery,
Gateshead) showing German cavalry and artillery escaping in confusion
from the allied guns. Another work from the war was The Charge of the
Lancers exhibited at the Naval and Military Exhibition in 1915.
Other major works works depict:
- The Charge of the Light Brigade based on a contemporary sketch by
Lord Tredegar.
- The Battle of Sedan
- The wars of the 1880s in Egypt and Sudan, Ulundi, and the Boer War.
- Historical scenes including Montrose's march from Inverlochy and
General Seyditz at the Battle of Rossbach.
Charlton tragically lost two sons in The Great War, both described as
exceptionally promising young men. He did not live to see the peace,
dying in November 1917.
