Terms and conditions of use
The 28th Regiment at Quatre Bras
1875
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
97.2 × 216.2 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, 1884
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Elizabeth Thompson was a leading painter of military and historical subjects in the late nineteenth century. In 1874 she commenced a painstaking reconstruction of the moment that the 28th Regiment, in square formation, repelled a final charge from the French Cuirassiers
and the terrifying Polish Lancers at Quatre Bras, two days before the decisive Battle of Waterloo. When Quatre Bras was shown at the Royal Academy, it attracted huge crowds and was latter carried in to the Academy Banquet and applauded before the Prince of Wales. It was acquired for the NGV in 1884, and in 1906 it was voted most popular picture in the gallery.
Frame: original, maker unknown, surface not original
Artwork Details
Inscription
inscribed in red paint l.l.: ET (monogram) / E · T / 1875
Accession Number
p.309.9-1
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
History and Legend Human Figures Military and Warfare
Subjects (specific)
attacks (armed conflicts) battlefields battles Belgium (nation) firearms infantries military uniforms Napoleonic Wars (European history, 1800-1815)
Provenance
Commissioned from the artist by Charles J. Galloway, 1875; his collection, until 1884; included in the Galloway sale, Christie’s, London, 28 May 1881, no. 61 (passed in); purchased from Galloway, on the advice of A. Taddy Thompson, for the National Gallery of Victoria, 1884.
Exhibited Royal Academy, London, 1875, no. 853; Manchester, Newcastle- upon-Tyne, Leeds, Nottingham and Leicester 1875–76; Fine Art Society, London, 1877 (with The Roll Call, Balaclava and Inkerman); First Interchange Exhibition, Loan Collection of oil paintings, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, 1894, no. 2; Loan Collection of Pictures, Guildhall, London 1900, no. 15; Queensland Art Fund: Exhibition of Pictures from the Southern States, Brisbane, 1930, no. 31; Picture of the Month, NGV, Melbourne, 1974; Women Artists 1550–1950, Los Angeles, 1976, no. 98; Lady Butler, Battle Artist, National Army Museum, London, 1987–8, no. 21; The First Fifty Years: Nineteenth Century British Art from the Gallery Archives, NGV, Melbourne, 1992; Hidden Treasures, David Jones’ Art Gallery, Sydney, 1992.
Frame
Original, maker unknown
Frame
The frame for Elizabeth Butler Thompson The 28th regiment at Quatre Bras 1815, painted in 1875 is in the manner of trophy frames, where the detailing of the frame carries a reference to the subject of the work it encompasses. The surface of the frame is inscribed in the gilding with place names and insignia.
The frame and painting travelled to Australia from England by ship (the S.S. “Ghazee”), leaving on 24 July 1884, in two separate crates.
The painting was shown at the Royal Academy London in the year it was painted, and this would be the frame used for that exhibition.
The frame was cleaned and restored in 2009.
The painting was cleaned and restored in 2006.
Frame Details
Framemaker
Unknown - 19th century
Date
1875
Materials
timber and gold leaf