David Wilkie Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Dispatch

''The Chelsea Pensioners reading the Waterloo Dispatch'', originally entitled ''Chelsea Pensioners Receiving the London Gazette Extraordinary of Thursday, June 22, 1815, Announcing the Battle of Waterloo'', is an oil painting by

David Wilkie David Wilkie may refer to: * David Wilkie (artist) (1785–1841), Scottish painter * David Wilkie (surgeon) (1882–1938), British surgeon, scientist and philanthropist * David Wilkie (footballer) (1914–2011), Australian rules footballer * David ...

, commissioned by

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister o ...

in August 1816. It was exhibited at the

Royal Academy summer exhibition The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, s ...

in 1822, where it was so popular that a rail was installed to protect it from the thronging crowds. This was the first time that a rail was needed at the Royal Academy exhibition. The painting was retained by the Duke of Wellington and his descendants, and it is displayed at

Apsley House Apsley House is the London townhouse of the Dukes of Wellington. It stands alone at Hyde Park Corner, on the south-east corner of Hyde Park, facing south towards the busy traffic roundabout in the centre of which stands the Wellington Arch. It i ...

Background

Wellington was introduced to Wilkie by

Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch (19 October 174818 December 1843) was a Scottish aristocrat, politician and British Army officer. After his education at Oxford, he inherited a substantial estate in Scotland, married and settled down to a quie ...

in August 1816, the year after the Battle of Waterloo. Wellington commissioned Wilkie, who intended to complete the work within two years. Willkie specialised in

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

, but in this work he attempted to combine genre painting with

history painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...

. The painting took the relatively novel approach of showing history in a contemporary setting, without adding references to ancient history or the Bible. Wilkie prepared a sketch, but it was not viewed by the Duke until March 1819, when he asked for some changes to add more and younger soldiers. The work was not completed until 1822. After its successful first exhibition, Wilkie asked the Duke for an exceptionally large fee of 1,200

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from the Guinea region in West Africa, from where m ...

Description and characters

Chelsea Pensioners and others hearing the news of Wellington Wellcome V0012935

The painting measures {{convert, 158, xx, 97, cm. It shows old soldiers gathered around a wooden table outside the "Duke of York" public house, in Jew's Row off the

King's Road King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

. The

Royal Hospital Chelsea The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home and nursing home for some 300 veterans of the British Army. Founded as an almshouse, the ancient sense of the word "hospital", it is a site located on Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea. It is an ...

is visible in the background to the left. One of the soldiers is reading the ''Waterloo Gazette'', which published the Waterloo Dispatch sent by the Duke of Wellington immediately after the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. The dispatch, dated 19 June 1815, was reprinted in several editions of the ''

London Gazette London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

'' on 22 June 1815. The painting includes many portraits of characters identified in notes prepared by Wilkie, and include, from left to right: * An artilleryman who has laid down his knapsack. * A mounted orderly of the 7th Light Dragoons who has brought the Gazette, wearing a blue uniform with red pillbox hat. * A soldier from the Life Guards, a sergeant from 42nd Foot (the Black Watch) who fought at the

Battle of Barrosa The Battle of Barrosa (Chiclana, 5 March 1811, also known as the Battle of Chiclana or Battle of Cerro del Puerco) was part of an unsuccessful manoeuvre by an Anglo-Iberian force to break the French siege of Cádiz during the Peninsular War ...

in 1811, and one from the

King's German Legion The King's German Legion (KGL; german: Des Königs Deutsche Legion, semantically erroneous obsolete German variations are , , ) was a British Army unit of mostly expatriated German personnel during the period 1803–16. The legion achieved th ...

. * A Chelsea pensioner who was at the Battle of Quebec with

General Wolfe James Wolfe (2 January 1727 – 13 September 1759) was a British Army officer known for his training reforms and, as a major general, remembered chiefly for his victory in 1759 over the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec. ...

in 1759, standing and reading the Gazette. * A soldier's wife, pregnant and ashen-faced, waiting for news of her husband's fate. * A seated veteran eating an oyster (despite the consumption of oysters in June being prohibited by

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

). * A black bandsman from the

1st Foot Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

(once a servant of

General Moreau Jean Victor Marie Moreau (, 14 February 1763 – 2 September 1813) was a French general who helped Napoleon Bonaparte to power, but later became a rival and was banished to the United States. Biography Rise to fame Moreau was born at Morla ...

) who witnessed the execution of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

in 1793. * An old soldier who fought under Wellington at the

Battle of Assaye The Battle of Assaye was a major battle of the Second Anglo-Maratha War fought between the Maratha Empire and the British East India Company. It occurred on 23 September 1803 near Assaye in western India. An outnumbered Indian and British forc ...

in 1803, and under the

Marquis of Granby Duke of Rutland is a title in the Peerage of England, named after Rutland, a county in the East Midlands of England. Earldoms named after Rutland have been created three times; the ninth earl of the third creation was made duke in 1703, in whos ...

in the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754� ...

in the 1750s and 1760s. * A veteran with a wooden leg. * An Irishman from the

11th Dragoons The 11th Hussars (Prince Albert's Own) was a cavalry regiment of the British Army established in 1715. It saw service for three centuries including the First World War and Second World War but then amalgamated with the 10th Royal Hussars (Pri ...

, talking to an elderly veteran, who served with General Eliott in the

Great Siege of Gibraltar The Great Siege of Gibraltar was an unsuccessful attempt by Spain and France to capture Gibraltar from the British during the War of the American Revolution. It was the largest battle in the war by number of combatants. The American war had end ...

. * A corporal from the Royal Horse Guards (the Blues) with his wife and son and the dog Old Duke which accompanied the regiment through Spain. * A soldier from the Foot Guards leaning out from the window. In the background, a Highlander is playing the

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

Reception

Sir David Wilkie - Chelsea Pensioners Receiving the Gazette Announcing the Battle of Waterloo - Google Art Project

The painting's focus on ordinary people made a significant impression on

Théodore Géricault Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault (; 26 September 1791 – 26 January 1824) was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is ''The Raft of the Medusa''. Although he died young, he was one of the pioneers of the Romantic ...

when he viewed the unfinished work in Wilkie's studio in the spring of 1821, and on its second showing at the Royal Institution. It was also seen by

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...

and

Richard Parkes Bonington Richard Parkes Bonington (25 October 1802 – 23 September 1828) was an English Romantic landscape painter, who moved to France at the age of 14 and can also be considered as a French artist, and an intermediary bringing aspects of English sty ...

. The painting was given a prominent, central position at the

Somerset House Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("O ...

in 1822, hanging over the fireplace beside a portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Sir

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at t ...

. It became so popular that a rail was installed to protect it from the crowds, the first time that this precaution had been needed at a Royal Academy exhibition (the next occasion was for

William Powell Frith William Powell Frith (9 January 1819 – 2 November 1909) was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1853, presenting ''The Sleep ...

's ''

The Derby Day ''The Derby Day'' is a large oil painting showing a panoramic view of The Derby, painted by William Powell Frith over 15 months from 1856 to 1858. It has been described by Christie's as Frith's "undisputed masterpiece" and also "arguably the ...

'' in 1858). Wilkie received his commission of 1,200 guineas from Wellington, and he was paid a further 1,200 guineas by the publishers Graves & Co for the right to reproduce the painting as a print, engraved by John Burnet in 1829. The publisher also commissioned a watercolour copy, sold at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

in London on 14 April 1994. Wilkie's preparatory drawings show the evolution of the group. There are also several oil sketches, including one at the

Yale Center for British Art Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...

, c.1819.

References

''Wellington and Waterloo: The Duke, The Battle and Posterity, 1815-2015''
R E Foster, p. 136
Catalogue of Paintings in the Wellington Museum, Apsley House
English Heritage, p. 325-329
Sketch for ''Chelsea Pensioners receiving the announcement of the Battle of Waterloo''
Yale Centre for British Art

National Archives
The home front
''The Guardian'', 26 September 2002
''The life of Sir David Wilkie with his journals, tours and critical remarks on works of Art'', Volume 2
Allan Cunningham, p. 77
The Newspaper as Nationalist Icon, or How to Paint ‘Imagined Communities’
Brian Winkenweder, ''Limina'', Volume 14, 2008 1822 paintings Scottish paintings Waterloo campaign in paintings Paintings in the Wellington Collection Dogs in art Horses in art Black people in art

Background

Description and characters

Reception

See also

References