J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner Waterloo: Diagram of the Disposition of British Forces; La Haye Sainte from the South and the Tree where Sir Thomas Picton Fell 1817

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Waterloo: Diagram of the Disposition of British Forces; La Haye Sainte from the South and the Tree where Sir Thomas Picton Fell’ 1817
Folio 21 Verso:
Waterloo: Diagram of the Disposition of British Forces; La Haye Sainte from the South and the Tree where Sir Thomas Picton Fell 1817
D12741
Turner Bequest CLX 21a
Pencil on white wove paper, 150 x 94 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘16’ towards top left within diagram, ‘6 | 4000 | killed here’ below left of centre, ‘Line of Army E’ (for English) left of centre, above ridge, ‘Orchard’ below left of centre, ‘Causeway down which Bounaparte [sic] advanced’ towards bottom right, and ‘Picton killed here’ and ‘1500 | killed here’ centre right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
For Turner at Waterloo in 1817 see Introduction to this sketchbook and notes to folio 16 verso (D12731).
Beneath a small plan of the corresponding area, Turner has drawn a more distant view of the material on the recto (D12741) from higher ground a little further to the south: the farm of La Haye Sainte with its barn, courtyard and orchard, the road across the battlefield, the sandpit and the tree where Sir Thomas Picton died. His notes record the French advance northwards towards the British stationed along the ridge, the Picton tree and numbers of casualties. Further views from the south, closer to the French position, follow on folio 22 recto opposite and its verso (D12742–D12743).

David Blayney Brown
June 2025

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Waterloo: Diagram of the Disposition of British Forces; La Haye Sainte from the South and the Tree where Sir Thomas Picton Fell 1817’, catalogue entry, June 2025, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, June 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/waterloo-diagram-of-the-disposition-of-british-forces-la-haye-sainte-from-the-south-and-r1212109, accessed 31 July 2026.