Hello
Why such painting is curiously identified as a so-called 'Austrian Pandurs' unit??
the cut and colour look like rather the Bavarian Army, not Austrian,
add to that, even if Kobell had painted Austrians and French, he is Bavarian
which regiment (of the Bavarian Army I think) appears here?
I don't undertand why two on the left are in grey than light blue, maybe an accidental decoloration of the painting after two centuries
Musikzug eines Panduren-regiments marchiert mit klingenden Spiel durch das Lager
Austria Armee
Kobell 1796
https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:224461/
Thank you gentlemen for the confirmation, quite bizarre to find a such caption in this catalogue...
According to the critical catalog of Kobell's works by Siegfried Wichmann, the title of the picture is:
"Musikzug eines kurpfalz-bayerischen Infanterieregiments vom Regiment Hohenhausen 1785."
Dated 1796.
(Siegfried Wichmann, Wilhelm von Kobell, Munich 1970, p.229, cat. no. 342)
So, the watercolor is dated 1796 but is supposed to show Electoral Palatinate-Bavarian uniforms from 1785, apparently members of the Johann von Hohenhausen regiment (light/mid-blue coat, white facings, button colour yellow). Of course, the "Musikzug" does not represent a military "band" (Hoboisten), but just the regimental "Spielleute", i.e. the assembled company drums and fifes, led by the drum major.
Can't really comment on the fact that some coats appear to be grey instead of blue. It was a turbulent time for Electoral Palatinate-Bavaria. As for the "Austrian" looking soldiers with light/mid-blue facings in the background, they could well also be meant to be Bavarians, because it was precisely at this time that the Electorate Palatine-Bavarian Elector Carl Theodor tried to adapt the uniforms of the Bavarian infantry to those of the Imperial Austrian infantry as he intended to trade the just inherited Bavaria for the Austrian Netherlands and, in anticipation, wanted to hand over the Bavarians in Austrian looking uniforms. However, as is well known, nothing came of these plans due to diverse resistance.
As for the uniforms intended (and actually partly introduced from 1785) for the Bavarian army based on the Austrian model, look here (p. 8f.):
https://www.freundeskreis-armeemuseum.de/app/download/8692728/Kaskett_6.pdf
To provide some musical accompaniment to the picture .... Listen to the "Tagreveille" [from Stephan Friedberger, "Churfuerstl[ich] Pfaltzbayrische Regiments-Streich" (München, 1781)]:
http://volksmusik-altesneues.de/vma/files/Audio/Historische_Floetentoene_Tagreveille_31.mp3
They look Bavarian, as there are two Grenadiers there (front and back middle) in blue plus the one with he faded jacket. There were no regulations on what an Austrian regimental band looked like at this time, as it was paid for by the Inhaber. They usually had reverse colours, but no Grenz regiment had mid-blue facings. I think the 'Pandurs' are just a mistake in the catalogue. In the back left, you can see two infantry of the Austrian regt 3 or 4 as they have sky blue facings.