LONDON, ENGLAND.- With its opening coinciding with Waterloo Day on 18th June, this exhibition offers a superb opportunity to see what it was like to be a Napoleonic soldier. At its centre, generously lent by the National Gallery, visitors will have the chance to see close at hand, two large and splendid paintings of The Battle of Hanau and The Battle of Montmirail.  Having been part of the original Wallace Collection, they were bequeathed to the National Gallery by Sir John Murray Scott, who inherited them on the death of Lady Wallace in 1897.  These paintings, which depict two of Napoleon’s last victories, are each almost three metres wide and meticulously detailed.  They provide fascinating insights into the battle experiences of Napoleonic soldiers in the last years of Napoleon’s reign. They were painted by the great nineteenth-century French painter Horace Vernet in 1822 and 1824 for the duc d’Orléans, later Louis-Philippe, King of the French.  They will be accompanied by a portrait of Napoleon, also by Vernet, which was painted in 1815 for Lord Kinnaird, who like Lord Hertford, was also a British admirer of Napoleon. Also on display will be sixteen nineteenth-century watercolours of Napoleonic military scenes owned by the Wallace Collection, including works by Hippolyte Bellangé, Léon Cogniet, Auguste Raffet and again Horace Vernet, together with an exciting display of Napoleonic arms and armour.
As ever, there will be a host of activities for children and adults alike, associated with the exhibition, ranging from a Napoleonic walking tour between Hertford House and the Duke of Wellington’s home, Apsley House, on 19th June, to family activities such as exploring life as a Napoleonic soldier and art classes on the perspective in the two battle paintings.