Sir David Wilkie RA 1785-1841: The Chelsea Pensioners Reading The Waterloo Dispatch.
19th century oil sketch. Oil on canvas. The canvas has been relined.
This picture was commissioned by the Duke of Wellington in August 1816 and subsequently exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition at Somerset House in 1822 and was retained by the Duke at Apsley House. Wilkie is said to have charged him the ernomous sum of 1200 guineas.
The picture is set outside The Duke of York public house in Jew's Row off the King's Road Chelsea with The Royal Hospital in the background.
Wilkie identifies through his notes many of the characters in the picture but the most interesting is the black soldier right in the centre of the picture. He is identified as a bandsman in the 1st Foot Guards (once a servant of General Moreau) and witnessed the execution of Louis XVI in 1793.
There are several preparatory sketches, watercolours and oil sketches of this work including one at the Yale Centre for British Art.