Duke of Wellington

<strong>Text originally created for Tūrangawaewae: Art and New Zealand exhibition at Te Papa, March 2018.</strong>

A portrait of Wellington’s namesake, without pomp or ceremony.

In 1815, Arthur Wellesley, first Duke of Wellington, defeated Napoleon’s French army at Waterloo, becoming an instant English hero.

An enormous painting of Wellington in full uniform hangs in the Hermitage in St Petersburg, Russia – one of over 300 portraits artist George Dawe painted for Tsar Alexander I, England’s ally in the Napoleonic Wars. But this painting is far more modest. Dawe copied it from an 1821 portrait by Dutch artist Jan Willem Pieneman, now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

He kōwaiwai kiritangata o te tangata nōna te ingoa o Pōneke.

I te tau 1815, ka hinga te ope tauā o Napoleon nō Wīwī ki Wātarū i a Arthur Wellesley, arā, te Tiuka tuatahi o Wellington. Nā konā, i rongonui ai ia i Ingarangi.

E iri ana tētahi peitatanga nui o Wellington i roto i ōna kākahu katoa i te Hermitage ki St Petersburg i Rūhia. Koia nei tētahi o ngā kōwaiwai kiritangata 300 nā George Dawe i peita mō Tsar Alexander, he hoa pakanga o Ingarangi i Ngā Pakanga ki a Napoleon. Heoi, he ngākau whakaiti tō tēnei kōwaiwai. I whai a Dawe i tētahi kōwaiwai kiritangata nō te tau 1821, nā tētahi ringatoi nō Tatimana.

<strong>A Conservator's Viewpoint</strong>

Linda Waters, Curator Paintings at Te Papa, has carefully appraised this portrait. She comments thus:

The original format of the Dawe (based on the stretcher bar cracking) is of exactly the same proportions as that of the Pieneman at the Rijksmuseum. The Dawe is a little smaller, but the proportions of height to width are exact within a couple of mm. This surely is strong evidence of copying. The fact that the paintings are squareish in format strikes me as unusual. However, looking at an image of portraits at the Hermitage I see that many of the portraits are of similar proportions.

Regarding observations about style, I think the Dawe appears a little ‘stiffer’ - the application of paint in the Pieneman looks somewhat looser and more vigorous. It is evident from the detail of the eyes (proper right particularly) and the two strokes between the nose and mouth, that Dawe appears to have pretty much copied Pieneman’s strokes, accent for accent!

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art   February 2019