''The Duke of Wellington Writing Dispatches'' is an 1836

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 B ...

by the British

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

David Wilkie. It shows the

Duke of Wellington Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they ar ...

the night before the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...

writing to the

King of France France was ruled by monarchs from the establishment of the kingdom of West Francia in 843 until the end of the Second French Empire in 1870, with several interruptions. Classical French historiography usually regards Clovis I, king of the Fra ...

Louis XVIII Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. Before his reign, he spent 23 y ...

who was then in exile in Ghent by

lamplight "Lamplight" is a song by the Bee Gees, released as the B-side of "First of May (Bee Gees song), First of May", but featured as the single's A-side in Germany. It also featured on their double album ''Odessa (Bee Gees album), Odessa'' in March 1969 ...

to inform him of the coming battle. The painting was commissioned by James Willoughby Gordon, the Quartermaster-General along with a portrait of the

Duke of York Duke of York is a title of nobility in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of List of English monarchs, English (later List of British monarchs, British) monarchs ...

produced in 1823, although the project was long-delayed. Wilkie intended it to show Wellington writing the dispatch announcing the victory at Waterloo in his battlefield headquarters, making it a loose companion to one of his best-known works '' The Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Dispatch'' from 1822. However, Gordon pointed out that this was historically inaccurate as the Waterloo dispatch was written in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

. Instead when it was displayed at the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1836 at

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

it was under the title ''The Duke of Welliington Writing to the King of France on the Eve of Waterloo''. In fact this was itself inaccurate as Wellington had in fact written not to Louis, but to the king's nephew

Duke of Berry Duke of Berry () or Duchess of Berry () was a title in the Peerage of France. The Duchy of Berry, centred on Bourges, was originally created as an appanage for junior members of the French royal family and was frequently granted to female royal ...

at three o'clock in the morning. Today the painting is in the collection of the

Aberdeen Art Gallery Aberdeen Art Gallery is the main visual arts exhibition space in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1884 in a building designed by Alexander Marshall Mackenzie, with a sculpture court added in 1905. In 1900, it received the art ...

having been acquired in 1938.https://emuseum.aberdeencity.gov.uk/objects/3094/the-duke-of-wellington-writing-dispatches?ctx=aeb548ee1dcc3a5eff22f6a630c04b3d25024e91&idx=0

References

Bibliography

* Tromans, Nicholas. ''David Wilkie: The People's Painter''. Edinburgh University Press, 2007. * Wellesley, Charles. ''Wellington Portrayed''. Unicorn Press, 2014. * Wright, Christopher, Gordon, Catherine May & Smith, Mary Peskett. ''British and Irish Paintings in Public Collections: An Index of British and Irish Oil Paintings by Artists Born Before 1870 in Public and Institutional Collections in the United Kingdom and Ireland''. Yale University Press, 2006. 1836 paintings Paintings by David Wilkie History paintings Oil on panel paintings Cultural depictions of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington Waterloo campaign in paintings Portrait paintings of prime ministers of the United Kingdom {{1830s-painting-stub