Sir Edwin Henry Landseer

A Dialogue at Waterloo

exhibited 1850

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

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Not on display

Artist: Sir Edwin Henry Landseer 1802–1873
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 1937 x 3880 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by Robert Vernon 1847
Reference: N00415

Display caption

In the nineteenth century, as now, Landseer's fame rested on his ability as a painter of humorous or sentimental animal paintings. However he was also

an accomplished portrait, genre and landscape artist. This painting underlines the seemingly inexhaustible interest in commemorating the Napoleonic Wars. The whimsical scene, invented by the artist, shows Wellington, who was commander-in-chief of the Allied forces, returning to the battlefield of Waterloo with his daughter-in-law. Wellington himself disliked any attempt to paint the battle as he felt such images would inevitably fall short of the event itself.

Gallery label, September 2004

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