Barton Hottentot Kat River Levy

The subject dates to the Eighth Frontier War (1850-53). Baines was the official war artist during the war, serving with the British forces under Colonel Henry Somerset from June 1851 to January 1852. He recorded his employment in his journal at the time: "... about the twentieth of June I received a letter, in answer to an application that had been made on my behalf to General Somerset, offering to attach me to his staff, with rations for myself and my horse, and to give me every opportunity for sketching the localities and events of the war."