Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Despatch

Image credit: The Royal Hospital Chelsea

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A group of Chelsea Pensioners receiving from a mounted cavalryman to the left, the 'London Gazette Extraordinary' of Thursday 22nd June 1815, announcing the Battle of Waterloo. This painting was commissioned by the Duke of Wellington and was shown at the Royal Academy upon its completion in 1822. It celebrates the end of the Napoleonic Wars with Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. It was originally to have been a group of soldiers outside a public house, but Wilkie chose to set it outside the Royal Hospital Chelsea, a place with significant connotations to the Army then, just as today, Chelsea Pensioners being soldiers discharged from the Army as unfit for further duty because of injury. The Hospital provided accommodation for about 500 within.

The Royal Hospital Chelsea

London

Title

Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Despatch

Date

c.1822

Medium

oil on board

Measurements

H 28 x W 38 cm

Accession number

41

Acquisition method

presented by Commander C. W. Phillips, 1956

Work type

Painting

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The Royal Hospital Chelsea

Royal Hospital Road, London, Greater London SW3 4SR England

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