Equestrian portrait of Thomas Alexandre Dumas (1762-1806) (oil on canvas)

Thomas-Alexandre Dumas (1762-1806) son of Marquis Alexandre Antoine Davy de la Pailleterie (1714-86) and a black slave, Marie-Cessette Dumas; born on the French Caribbean island colony of Saint Domingue (now called Haiti); first mixed race general in the French army; had a brilliant career in the French Revolutionary wars; his success against the Austrian army in 1797 led to him being called 'Schwarze Teufel' ('Black Devil' or 'Diable Noir') by the Austrians; his single-handed exploit in vanquishing three opponents on the bridge over the river Eisack led to Napoleon dubbing him the 'Horatius Cocles of the Tyrol', after the hero who had saved ancient Rome; his later relationship with Napoleon was more problematical and after campaigning in Egypt in 1797, he returned to France but en route was forced by storms to take refuge in Tarento where he was imprisoned and ill treated by the Neapolitan government for two years; after his return to France, he became a victim of the political and racial purges in the French army following the revolt in Saint-Domingue in 1802, was stripped of his rank and refused a pension by Napoleon; he married Marie-Louise Labouret in 1792 and their son was the writer and novelist, Alexandre Dumas (1802-70) who later was to fictionalise his father's life and exploits in the novel 'The Three Musketeers';