The Roll Call

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Calling the Roll After An Engagement, Crimea, better known as The Roll Call, is an 1874 oil-on-canvas painting by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler. It became one of the most celebrated British paintings of the 19th century, but later fell out of critical favour^{[citation needed]}.

The painting depicts a roll call of soldiers from the Grenadier Guards during the Crimean War. It was taken to depict an occasion following the Battle of Inkerman in 1854, but was intended to show a more generic scene from the war. An irregular line of private soldiers stand in the snow wearing their greatcoats and bearskins, many clearly exhausted or wounded. One of the privates has slumped forward onto the icy ground. An officer on horseback watches while a sergeant marks his muster roll.

The painting has a highly finished surface, reflecting Thompson's academic training, but she eschewed the traditional pyramidal composition of history paintings focusing on one prominent individual, such as Benjamin West's The Death of General Wolfe or John Singleton Copley's The Death of Major Pierson, in favour of a more democratic linear arrangement, emphasising the common soldier. The coldness of the winter is evoked by the dominant tones of black, grey, white and brown, contrasting with small splashes of red from coatees and flags. It measures 93.3 × 183.5 centimetres (36.7 × 72.2 in).