Richard Westall (1765–1836)
Victories of the Duke of Wellington, from drawings by R. Westall, R. A.
London: printed for Rodwell and Martin, 1819
Harley-Mason.bb.81, plate opposite p. 40

Wellington entered Toulouse, in south-western France, on 12 April 1814, two days after an indecisive engagement against a French force under Marshal Soult which nevertheless then withdrew from the city. To the north, Napoleon had already abdicated in the face of the armies of the Sixth Coalition. A sizeable anti-Bonapartist faction already existed in Toulouse, and Richard Westall’s idealized image depicts a grateful population welcoming Wellington as a liberator.

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