We had a study day today to discuss the Waterloo Cartoon which has been on display for the last month or so as a way of commemorating the Battle of Waterloo. What struck me on looking at it again is its documentary realism. Most of the works commemorating Wellington are, not surprisingly, heroic. But Maclise, in undertaking the task of depicting the aftermath of the battle for the House of Lords, is surprisingly impassive, concentrating on accuracy in the detail and the scale of death without glorifying it. I also did not know that it was bought by the RA in 1870, following Maclise’s death, put on display in the new diploma galleries until 1922 when its ardent Victorianism went out of fashion. So it was sent on loan to Sandhurst where it was displayed in a gymnasium.
| Charles | Saumarez | Smith | 
Up to a point, Lord Copper. It’s ridiculously un-historical in depicting Wellington, calm as The Victor at the centre of events, when it was Blucher, marching his army through the night and arriving in the nick of time, who swung it, without whom …..
Dear Mark, I bow to your superior historical knowledge ! Charles
It’s a classic example of (a) the power of Art and (b) the power of The Victor. Every child know that “Wellington won the Battle of Waterloo, 1815”. Maclise’s painting insists that this is so.