Engraving
Maker & role
William McQueen, Engraver
Production date
1846
Object detail
Title
Duke of Wellington
Production place
Collection
Measurements
0 - Whole, H: 48.8 x W: 58.8cm (H: 488 x W: 588mm); imprint, H: 38 x W: 48cm (H: 380 x W: 480mm)
Production notes
Inscribed ‘Engraved by McQueen’ after The Count D’Orsay (painter).
Subject person
Signature & marks
Printed beneath image: ‘FIELD MARSHALL HIS GRACE / THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, K.G, &c. &c / PAINTED BY COUNT D’ORSAY 1846 / LONDON, PUBLISHED JULY 1ST 1846 BY JOHN MITCHELL, PUBLISHER TO THE QUEEN / 33 OLD BOND STREET / Engraved by McQueen.’
Credit line
Purchase, 2006
Elizabeth Bay House Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Elizabeth Bay House Collection, Museums of History New South Wales
Description
Engraved three-quarter length standing portrait of the Duke of Wellington in formal dress after an original portrait by the Comte D’Orsay (dated July 1845). The portrait is captioned ‘Field Marshall His Grace / THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, K.G, &c. &c / PAINTED BY COUNT D’ORSAY 1846 / LONDON, PUBLISHED JULY 1ST 1846 BY JOHN MITCHELL, PUBLISHER TO THE QUEEN / 33 OLD BOND STREET / Engraved by McQueen.’
The Duke holds a tasselled bicorn (hat) under his left arm. He wears the sash of the Order of the Garter (bestowed 1813, while Marquess of Wellington), and the Badge of the Order on his right chest (St George and the dragon, and the Order’s motto ‘Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense’ inscribed on an encircling garter). The decoration worn around his neck is also part of the Order of the Garter decorations (the ‘George’, worn suspended from the Collar or ribbon). The badge (the ‘Lesser George’) is shown higher than on the original oil portrait (where it is shown as customary on the turn of the sash).
Portraits of Wellington were common in British interiors following the Peninsula Campaigns and his subsequent rapid ennoblement (11 May 1814; a one day process that saw him progressively raised from Viscount, to Earl, Marquess and finally Duke, the first two having been granted in absentia in 1812) and the Battle of Waterloo (1815). Portraits of Nelson were similarly displayed. This example is after a portrait by the Comte D’Orsay (1801-52), grandson of the King of Wurttemberg, a notable society and artistic figure, who maintained a fashionable salon at Gore House, the home of his intimate acquaintance Lady Blessington that attracted the likes of Bulwer-Lytton and Disraeli. A popular series of profile sketches by him of society figures were also published by Mitchell, as were portraits of a young Victoria, Dwarkanath Tagore and the Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst. After his bankruptcy in 1849 he returned to Paris and endeavoured to support himself through portraiture; the original of this portrait was painted in July 1845. (It is likely that this print and others after works by D’Orsay were part of a calculated scheme to capitalise on the Duke’s anticipated death.) It was the last life portrait of Wellington, of which he exclaimed “At last I have been painted like a gentleman!... I’ll never sit to anyone else” (Dictionary of national biography, 1888). An earlier bronze equestrian statue of the Duke by D’Orsay was reproduced in Parian ware by Copeland and exhibited at the 1853 Great Exhibition. He was close to Prince Louis Napoleon, later (1851) Napoleon III, who granted him the position of Director of the Beaux-Arts shortly before his death.
Acquisitions for Elizabeth Bay House emphasise the early period of occupation by the Macleay family from 1839-1845. The Elizabeth Bay House collection is rich in portraiture owing to the survival of an 1859 inventory of pictures at Brownlow Hill, the Macleays country property near Camden. The subjects of the portraits, which are dominated by scientific figures, suggests that the collection had been formed by Alexander Macleay (1767-1848) and possibly taken to Brownlow Hill when Macleay was forced to leave Elizabeth Bay House in 1845. Engraved versions of the portraits have been acquired for Elizabeth Bay House on the basis of this inventory, which includes a portrait of Wellington. Macleay pursued a civil service career from 1794 onwards, the period dominated by the Napoleonic Wars, notably as Secretary of the Transport Board (1806-1818). Politically Macleay was a Tory, as was Wellington who (both before and after his military career) pursued political power under the Tory banner culminating in his holding the office of prime minister from 1828-1830, finally retiring from political life in 1846.
Other representations of Wellington in the Elizabeth Bay House collection are an engraving depicting the Duke astride his horse Copenhagen, raising his hat in a victory salute after Waterloo (EB93/12) and a Parian bust (EB80/208).
The Duke holds a tasselled bicorn (hat) under his left arm. He wears the sash of the Order of the Garter (bestowed 1813, while Marquess of Wellington), and the Badge of the Order on his right chest (St George and the dragon, and the Order’s motto ‘Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense’ inscribed on an encircling garter). The decoration worn around his neck is also part of the Order of the Garter decorations (the ‘George’, worn suspended from the Collar or ribbon). The badge (the ‘Lesser George’) is shown higher than on the original oil portrait (where it is shown as customary on the turn of the sash).
Portraits of Wellington were common in British interiors following the Peninsula Campaigns and his subsequent rapid ennoblement (11 May 1814; a one day process that saw him progressively raised from Viscount, to Earl, Marquess and finally Duke, the first two having been granted in absentia in 1812) and the Battle of Waterloo (1815). Portraits of Nelson were similarly displayed. This example is after a portrait by the Comte D’Orsay (1801-52), grandson of the King of Wurttemberg, a notable society and artistic figure, who maintained a fashionable salon at Gore House, the home of his intimate acquaintance Lady Blessington that attracted the likes of Bulwer-Lytton and Disraeli. A popular series of profile sketches by him of society figures were also published by Mitchell, as were portraits of a young Victoria, Dwarkanath Tagore and the Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst. After his bankruptcy in 1849 he returned to Paris and endeavoured to support himself through portraiture; the original of this portrait was painted in July 1845. (It is likely that this print and others after works by D’Orsay were part of a calculated scheme to capitalise on the Duke’s anticipated death.) It was the last life portrait of Wellington, of which he exclaimed “At last I have been painted like a gentleman!... I’ll never sit to anyone else” (Dictionary of national biography, 1888). An earlier bronze equestrian statue of the Duke by D’Orsay was reproduced in Parian ware by Copeland and exhibited at the 1853 Great Exhibition. He was close to Prince Louis Napoleon, later (1851) Napoleon III, who granted him the position of Director of the Beaux-Arts shortly before his death.
Acquisitions for Elizabeth Bay House emphasise the early period of occupation by the Macleay family from 1839-1845. The Elizabeth Bay House collection is rich in portraiture owing to the survival of an 1859 inventory of pictures at Brownlow Hill, the Macleays country property near Camden. The subjects of the portraits, which are dominated by scientific figures, suggests that the collection had been formed by Alexander Macleay (1767-1848) and possibly taken to Brownlow Hill when Macleay was forced to leave Elizabeth Bay House in 1845. Engraved versions of the portraits have been acquired for Elizabeth Bay House on the basis of this inventory, which includes a portrait of Wellington. Macleay pursued a civil service career from 1794 onwards, the period dominated by the Napoleonic Wars, notably as Secretary of the Transport Board (1806-1818). Politically Macleay was a Tory, as was Wellington who (both before and after his military career) pursued political power under the Tory banner culminating in his holding the office of prime minister from 1828-1830, finally retiring from political life in 1846.
Other representations of Wellington in the Elizabeth Bay House collection are an engraving depicting the Duke astride his horse Copenhagen, raising his hat in a victory salute after Waterloo (EB93/12) and a Parian bust (EB80/208).
Accession number
EB2007/1
Share
Contact Us
Head Office
The Mint, 10 Macquarie St
Sydney, NSW 2000
On Gadigal land
T 02 8239 2288
TTY 02 8239 2377
E info@mhnsw.au
Public comments
Be the first to comment on this object record.