Photograph of Colonel Dupin. - Lot 19

Photograph of Colonel Dupin. By DisderiCie, HM the Emperor's photographer. Posing in an upturned chair, gazing into the distance, his distinctive sombrero on his head, His eternal cigar in his mouth and a Lefaucheux revolver in his belt. Second Empire period. Colonel Dupin. Emblematic figure of the Second Empire. He made a name for himself during the capture of Abd el-Kader's smala, and was portrayed on this occasion in Horace Vernet's fresco. He fought in the Crimean, Italian and Chinese campaigns. Taking part in the looting of the Summer Palace in Peking, he tried to sell his booty At the Drouot auction house, but the sale was cancelled on the orders of Emperor Napoleon III himself, for political reasons. In 1862, he was dismissed from his job. The troop-hungry Mexican expedition enabled him, in addition to his connections, to him back into the army. His counter-guerrilla methods were brutal, and he inherited the nicknames The Tamopilas Hiene", "Monster of the Hot Lands" and "Red Devil".