Interviews with artist Keith Rocco

Click

Click this link to read excerpts from interviews with renowned military artist Keith Rocco that appeared in the European magazines Bellumartis and Amis Club.

 

Click this link to read about Keith’s Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Army, the most accurate collection ever published of images of the French Army at Waterloo, now on Kickstarter.

Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Army-The Art of Keith Rocco

Read a review here

 

“His painterly and fluid style and exhaustive research of his subject has earned Rocco acclaim as one of the country’s most sought after narrative artists.”
—Imagine Art Gallery


The French Army of the Hundred Days

On his return from the island of Elba in early 1815 Napoleon had to resurrect an army that had been greatly reduced during his exile from France. It was his last campaign.

For more than two decades historian, researcher, and author Paul Lindsay Dawson delved into the archives of the French army, translating reams of original documents and reports related to the rebuilding of Napoleon’s Imperial Army in 1815.

This book visually represents the results of that research, and describes the many variations of French uniforms hastily pressed into service by the harried quartermasters as they rushed to rebuild and refit an army that would end its life at Waterloo.


The most accurate collection of images of the French Army as it appeared at Waterloo


  • 64 original paintings portraying many of the French Army units at Waterloo
  • Over a decade of research and artistic rendering by Keith Rocco went into producing the paintings in this book
  • 150+ photographs of historical artifacts from the holdings of three museums and seven private collections
  • Foreword by David Markham, President, International Napoleonic Society

“I have always prided myself on telling the story of the common soldier, the often anonymous men who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances.”—Keith Rocco

Features a new painting of the Guard fighting in the cemetery at Placenoit. Click to enlarge.

Features a new painting of the Guard fighting in the cemetery at Placenoit. Click to enlarge.

What You Get In
WATERLOO: NAPOLEON’S LAST ARMY

  • 176 oversize-format 9 3/8” by 13 1/2” large pages
  • 128 pages featuring 64 Keith Rocco soldier paintings – 32 Imperial Guard and 32 Line units
  • Full color throughout
  • Fine high-grade, art quality paper
  • Facing pages feature descriptive text relating to the subject of the painting along with captioned photos of rare artifacts depicted within the artwork
  • An added plus: 28 more pages dedicated solely to beautifully photographed and captioned artifact photos
  • Illustrated Uniform Glossary in French and English
  • Index of units and officers that are portrayed in the book’s paintings
  • 4 large horizontal battle paintings on 2-page chapter title spreads, including:
  • Plancenoit – Guard Infantry & Artillery chapter. A NEVER-BEFORE-PUBLISHED PAINTING OF THE IMPERIAL GUARD FIGHTING IN THE CEMETERY! The artist created this painting especially for this book.
  • Empress Dragoons – Guard Cavalry chapter.
  • The Great Gate of Hougoumont – Line Infantry & Artillery chapter.
  • Quatre Bras – Line Cavalry chapter.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


Click here to order the book

 


About the Artist

Artist Keith Rocco has created paintings for the Pentagon, museums in both the U.S. and Europe, the U.S. Army War College, and numerous National Park Service sites. He has been painting professionally for over 35 years specializing in military subjects.

Keith Rocco at work. Click to enlarge.

Keith Rocco at work. Click to enlarge.

“One of today’s foremost painters of military images.”
—NapoleonicHistoricalSociety.org

“(An) artist in the tradition of Remington and Detaille”
—Uniformes magazine

“When Keith Rocco prepares to create a historical painting he does extensive research on the subject and time period . . . he researches information on individuals from their memoirs, letters and biographies. From there he creates a story of what happened.”—From the student handout in a lesson plan created by Baltimore Public Television for teachers to use in having students analyze Keith Rocco’s work

Read excerpts from interviews with Keith that appeared in the European magazines Bellumartis and Amis Club.

About Paul Lindsay Dawson

Paul Lindsay Dawson. Click to enlarge.

Author Paul Lindsay Dawson is a field archaeologist and professional historian specializing in the army of Napoleon I. He has written more than 35 books on Napoleonic subjects.


The backstory on ‘The First Battle of Bull Run’ battlefield guide book

In 1991 The First Battle of Bull Run booklet was published and over the next several years sold successfully at the Manassas National Battlefield Park visitor center. Despite selling 5,000 copies no further guides were produced. Why?

The creation of Bull Run was a “proof of concept” project designed by Dana Lombardy in conjunction with the Chief Historians and Park Rangers at the Park and written by John Hill. It was enthusiastically endorsed by them, and we hoped it would be the first in the “American Civil War Notebook Series” of graphic booklets for other Parks—useful guides for visitors, reference material for wargamers, and user-friendly introductions to Civil War battles.

Unfortunately, the project was brought to a standstill higher up in the National Park Service. NPS decides what will be sold at the parks and later released its own “guides.” These did not contain detailed color maps, color orders-of-battle, or as many historical illustrations as our Bull Run.

The lesson learned: don’t try to sell something to the U.S. government unless you have “inside” support.

Dana went on to design and publish (in 2014) the first full-size book in the Map Study Series: Grant Rising, Mapping the Career of a Great Commander Through 1862.

The First Battle of Bull Run remains a unique and unmatched battlefield guide booklet and is available for purchase as a print edition or pdf from our Shop.

SU-152 and T-34

I am an avid collector of books on military equipment and history. I currently have over 3,000 volumes in my library of which I have over 800 books on tanks and AFV’s. And I can say the two books on the T-34 and SU-152 are the best, most informative and fact filled of any books I have. They are scholarly efforts that provide information not written about in any other book I have.
Anybody buying these will have spent their money well. Congrats to Lombardy Studios for raising the bar on historical accounts of tank design and warfare!
– Brian Willis

2 AMAZING BOOKS ON WORLD WAR TWO TANKS

AVAILABLE IN PRINT OR PDF
 
The SU-152 and Related Vehicles
102 photos, 105 illustrations and diagrams, 6 tables and charts, 2 11″ x 17″ illustrated blueprints displaying a 152mm cannon and SU-152 vehicle, 2-page full-color foldout with SU-152 cut-a-way profile, 8 pages of full-color armor profiles, 264 pages $29.95 ($39.95 regular price)
 
The T-34 Goes to War
94 photos, 28 tables, 6 charts and diagrams, 9 maps, 2 appendices, 2 11″ x 17″ illustrated tactical organization and equipment charts displaying 1940 and 1941 tank battalions, 8-page full-color foldout with armor profiles, 236 pages $29.95 ($39.95 regular price)
BUY BOTH BOOKS AND GET THE 8-PAGE ILLUSTRATED SU-152 REFERENCE & TUTORIAL FOR FREE
Filled with facts and history about the “Beast Killer” of German tanks (a $5 value)
DESCRIPTION
For the first time in English — Photos and drawings from secret Soviet archives and museums — many never previously published. Recently translated documents are used to present the Soviet Russian stories of the T-34 and SU-152. (This is why we call them “The Russian View.”)
In “The SU-152 and Related Vehicles,” you will learn about the design and evolution of the legendary self-propelled gun on the KV chassis, including many little-known prototypes and proposed alternate models. Called the “beast killer” at Kursk for its ability to destroy German Tiger and Panther tanks. What disaster led to the shortage of these “bunker busters” in the final push into Germany in 1945?
“The T-34 Goes to War” chronicles the real story of this famous medium tank, from its troubled conception to its first, desperate combat actions in the cauldron of Barbarossa. Thousands of T-34s were available in June 1941 – why did they fail to stop the German panzer groups? Soviet archival records admit to some astonishing problems.
Both books are filled with illustrations and photos.

Click here to buy now!

SNEAK PEEK

Download FREE 8-page “Sneak Peek” SU-152 PDF
Download FREE 8-page “Sneak Peek” T-34 PDF

Grant Rising

Grant Rising“Grant Rising is breathtaking. How I wish I had this book when doing Grant Moves South or working on the Shiloh game for West End! I love the way it emphasizes the command organizations, both in the maps and in the diagrams. This is too often neglected—armies are treated as a big pile of Rebels against a bigger heap of Yankees, not the way it was at all. Your clear color diagrams of the army organizations are a beautiful sight for anyone who’s worked his way through the small print of Battles & Leaders! I also love the way your campaign maps clearly indicate dates as the armies progressed, as this is critical to understanding the action at that level. It’s a beautiful volume and I will treasure it”

—Jonathan Southard, multiple award–winning designer of Grant Moves South, The Battle of Shiloh, and numerous other wargames.


“Grant Rising offers up the best map renderings of the U.S.–Mexican War and early Civil War Western Theater operations ever published. It illustrates the classic marches and battles that we have all studied, but the terrain features, color and attention to detail help to unlock dozens of books on these subjects.”

—Evan C. Jones, editor of Gateway to the Confederacy: New Perspectives on the Chickamauga and Chattanooga Campaigns, 1862–1863.


  • 46 full-color, full-page (11-by-8.5-inch) landscape format maps, 8 pages of full-color orders-of-battle, sidebars, appendices, index.
  • New information not previously published in map form, including Grant’s early life and his pre-Civil War career.
  • Different tints of of red and blue differentiate commands – unique to our maps and essential to understanding command relationships in complex battles – colors tints help separate multiple units of the same side on a single map, making the action easier to understand.
  • 3 orders-of-battle are similarly coded to the same command colors on the maps.
  • Lavish color maps with a shaded relief show the shape of the terrain.
  • Strategic overview maps place regional operations and battles in context.
  • Concise text, supported by quotations from participants and observers.
  • Original artwork by Keith Rocco!

A great reference source and a compelling account of Ulysses S. Grant’s early career!

Available in our Shop in both print and downloadable versions.

 

Click on the images below to see full page.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Napoleon 1815

NAPOLEON 1815 

An Analysis of the Organization and Composition of the French Imperial Armies of the Hundred Days 

by

Scott Bowden and Peter Cross

Project Overview (September 29, 2022)

There has never been an English language study of the organization and composition of all the French Imperial armies of 1815. This multi-volume series will hopefully correct this and leave a lasting contribution to the historiography of the Napoleonic epoch. As envisioned, it will expand upon the acclaimed Armies at Waterloo first published in 1983 by award-winning historian and author Scott Bowden. Additional years of research will include narrative and analysis of the aspects impacting the formation, organization, equipping and motivating of Napoleon’s last armies, along with detailed orders of battle for all the armies, as well as newly-commissioned color maps, informative graphs and sidebars, and other images that will visually aid the telling of the story.

In order to accurately and thoroughly create the historical record that will be remembered, and at the same time be a must for anyone interested in Napoleon, his armies and the Hundred Days reign, the story draws on Napoleon’s own Correspondance, as well as that of Marshal Louis Davout, along with a great many cartons from the French army archives located at château Vincennes. From these cartons, there are included the general military correspondence, the letters of the generals who served the Emperor, the situations (parade-states) and registres of the armies, as well as the journals of the Garde Impériale, the infantry and cavalry regiments of the line, and the state of the artillery equipments and support troops. Only in this manner can the complete story be told of Napoleon’s 1815 armies that were des Alpes, du Jura, de la Loire, de la Moselle, du Nord, des Pyrénées, du Rhin and du Var.

Updates will appear in the Lombardy Studios monthly eNewsletter. Estimated publication date for the initial volume is late 2023.