Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) Field Marshal & Prime Minister

Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769 - 1830)
Samuel Cousins (1801 - 1887)

Mezzotint

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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Ministry of Defence, Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich
  • About the artist
    Sir Thomas Lawrence was born in Bristol; the son of a supervisor of excise. In 1773 the family moved to Wiltshire to run a coaching inn but financial difficulties led them to move again to Bath, where Lawrence first worked as a portraitist. He may have had lessons from William Hoare, before enrolling at the Royal Academy schools in 1787. Aged 20, he received a royal commission for portraits of Queen Charlotte (1789-90) and Princess Amelia (1789). At 23 he replaced Reynolds as Painter-in-Ordinary and at 25, became a Royal Academician. Despite such success, he never escaped crippling debt. In 1815 he was knighted and commissioned to paint the Waterloo Chamber series of portraits. He replaced West as President of the Royal Academy in 1820.
    Samuel Cousins was a well known mezzotint engraver of portraits and decorative subjects after his contemporaries and 18th-century British artists. Born in Exeter, he was the pupil of, and assistant to, the engraver S. W. Reynolds. Cousins set up his own business in London in 1825 and would later become the first engraver to be elected a Royal Academician. He engraved plates after the foremost artists of his day including Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873), Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896) and Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873). His younger brother Henry Cousins (c.1809-1864) was also a mezzotint engraver.
  • Explore
    People
    Arthur, 1st Duke of Wellington Wellesley (1769 - 1852)
    Places
    Subjects
    male portrait, landscape C19th, telescope, 19th century costume, cloak, Duke, Prime Minister, sword, field marshal
    Materials & Techniques
    mezzotint
  • Details
    Artist
    Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769 - 1830)
    Samuel Cousins (1801 - 1887)
    Title
    Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852) Field Marshal & Prime Minister
    Date
    Medium
    Mezzotint
    Acquisition
    Purchased from F B Daniell, November 1951
    Inscription
    below image: [right, partially on laid paper] Sam.l Cousins
    GAC number
    1417