Denis Dighton (1792 – 8 August 1827) was an English painter, best known for his military portraits and battle scenes.

Life

Denis Dighton was the son of the caricaturist Robert Dighton and a younger brother was

Richard Dighton Richard Dighton (1795 in London – 13 April 1880 in London), was an English artist in the Regency period, best known for his many satirical profile portraits of contemporary London celebrities and characters. He was the son and apprentice of an ...

. He enrolled as a student of the Royal Academy in 1807 and exhibited 17 pictures there between 1811 and 1825. He enjoyed the patronage of the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

, who had been a close friend of his mother. Through the influence of the prince, he received a commission in the army in 1811, however, he soon returned to civilian life. By 1814 he had received the title of Military Painter to H.R.H. the Prince Regent. The prince sent Dighton to the

Southern Netherlands The Southern Netherlands, also called the Catholic Netherlands, were the parts of the Low Countries belonging to the Holy Roman Empire which were at first largely controlled by Habsburg Spain (Spanish Netherlands, 1556–1714) and later by the A ...

just before the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

, and seems to have bought all his exhibited pictures. Dighton visited the Waterloo battlefield five days after the victory and executed nine paintings of the battle. He fell from royal favour when his intermediary with the

Prince Regent A prince regent or princess regent is a prince or princess who, due to their position in the line of succession, rules a monarchy as regent in the stead of a monarch regnant, e.g., as a result of the sovereign's incapacity (minority or illness ...

, Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, lost his place in the royal household, to be replaced by Sir

William Knighton Sir William Knighton, 1st Baronet, (1776 – 11 October 1836) was Private Secretary to the Sovereign under George IV (1822–1830). Life He was born in 1776 at Bere Ferrers in Devon, and studied under his uncle, Dr. Bredall, in Tavistock, ...

. After this loss of patronage, Dighton became mentally ill; he moved with his wife and son to Brittany, where he lived supported by the

Artists' Benevolent Fund The Artists' Benevolent Fund was instituted in 1810Sampson Low the younger. "Artists' Benevolent Fund" in ''The Charities of London in 1852-3''. Sampson Low and Son. London. 1854Page 101 and incorporated by royal charter on 2 August 1827. It has ...

until his death at the age of 35 on 8 August 1827. Dighton is mostly known for his paintings of battle scenes especially depicting the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

and Waterloo; he also painted a scene of

Nelson Nelson may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Nelson'' (1918 film), a historical film directed by Maurice Elvey * ''Nelson'' (1926 film), a historical film directed by Walter Summers * ''Nelson'' (opera), an opera by Lennox Berkeley to a lib ...

being shot at the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...

. He married a sister of

Augustus Earle Augustus Earle (1793–1838) was a British painter. Unlike earlier artists who worked outside Europe and were employed on voyages of exploration or worked abroad for wealthy, often aristocratic patrons, Earle was able to operate quite indepen ...

, Phoebe Earle, herself a working artist and exhibitor at the Royal Academy who became Flower Painter in Ordinary to

Queen Adelaide , house = Saxe-Meiningen , father = Georg I, Duke of Saxe-Meiningen , mother = Princess Louise Eleonore of Hohenlohe-Langenburg , birth_date = , birth_place = Meiningen, Saxe-Meiningen, Holy ...

, in 1812 and they had two sons.

Paintings

* ''The Storming of San Sebastian on the 31st of August'' (1814 -

National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, commonly known as the National Trust for Scotland ( gd, Urras Nàiseanta na h-Alba), is a Scottish conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organi ...

, Leith Hall) * ''Battle of Orthes'' (1815 -

Marquess of Anglesey Marquess of Anglesey ( cy, Ardalydd Môn) is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1815 for Henry Paget, 2nd Earl of Uxbridge, a hero of the Battle of Waterloo, second in command to the Duke of Wellington. The Marqu ...

) * ''The Battle of Waterloo'' (1816 -

) * ''Waterloo - Charge of the Second Brigade of Cavalry'' (1817)Royal_Collection
.html" ;"title="Royal Collection">Royal Collection
">Royal Collection">Royal Collection
/ref> * ''Battle of Waterloo'' (attributed) * ''Greeks and Turks. Defeat of the Turks in the Defile of Klissura'' (1823 - Private Collection)

Works about

* Carman, William Y., "The Battle of Waterloo by Denis Dighton," ''Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research'', Vol. XLIII, No. 174, June 1965, pp. 55–59. * Harrington, Peter. (1993). ''British Artists and War: The Face of Battle in Paintings and Prints, 1700-1914.'' London: Greenhill

References

External links

nmm.ac.uk Short Biography at the National Maritime Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dighton, Denis 1792 births 1827 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters British war artists 19th-century English male artists