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. 43

This plate is one of a set of 12 illustrations of battle scenes from the Peninsular War and Waterloo intended ‘to recal[l] the exultations which each triumph produced, by a representation of the decisive moment that occasioned it’. The image for Waterloo shows the point when, after eight hours of defensive fighting, ‘the approach of the Prussians on the left of the British line determined the Duke of Wellington to be in his turn the assailant’ and to order the general advance of the Allied line. Westall’s drawings were engraved by Theodore Henry Fielding; this image is from one of the large-paper copies, with the plates mounted on card.

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