Beschreibung:

Napoleon.- Battle of Waterloo.- Walsh (Edward, physician and medical officer, artist, 1756-1832) "La Belle Alliance"; The Island of St Helena; Dieppe Harbour; Naval base with windmill and ships in ordinary in the distance, possibly Great Yarmouth, pen and brown ink, point of the brush and watercolour, on wove paper mounted onto black card supports with ruled line in white, each approx. 110 x 175 mm. (4 1/4 x 6 7/8 in), some light browning and minor surface dirt, unframed, circa 1807-1815; together with Joseph Constantine Stadler's 'La Belle Alliance' featuring an illustration after the watercolour by Walsh, from Ackermann's 'Repository of Arts', etching and aquatint with hand-colouring, letterpress descriptive text by Walsh below, sheet 440 x 300 mm. (17 1/4 x 11 3/4 in), on brown paper support, some minor handling creases, spotting and light browning, unframed, Ackermann August 23, 1815 (5). Literature: ("La Belle Alliance" aquatint) Abbey Life, no. 212, item 533. ⁂ Fine unrecorded watercolours documenting the Napoleonic Wars, one "executed on the spot" illustrating the inn rendered famous by the meeting of the two great commanders, Prince Blücher and the Duke of Wellington, at the close of engagement, with the legs of the recently buried still visible. Walsh, a merchant's son, was born in Waterford, Ireland in 1756. He studied medicine at Glasgow and Edinburgh before entering the military, where he had his hand shattered by an explosion while serving under Nelson during the British attack on Copenhagen in 1801. He was afterwards sent with the 49th regiment to Canada, where he spent some years studying Native American life (circa 1803-1806). He collected a vast amount of information for a statistical history of Canada, but never published the work. The Library of Congress hold an original watercolour by Walsh from this period, where he illustrates Queenston, Upper Canada on the Niagara [see: LOC DRWG/US - Walsh, no. 1 (A size)]; this watercolour, like "La Belle Alliance" in the present lot, was illustrated as an aquatint in Ackermann's 'Repository'. The William L. Clements Library, Michigan, also hold 17 further watercolours by Walsh from his time in Upper Canada (see records 4535-4551). Following his time in North America, he returned to Europe, serving in the Peninsular War as well as at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. It was during this period that the present watercolours would have been executed. Walsh's watercolour of "La Belle Alliance" is described in Stadler's aquatint as having been "Taken on the Spot, June 25th", and was quickly disseminated by Ackermann in under a month. 'La Belle Alliance is represented as it appeared about a week after the battle [...] The out-offices in the rear were blown up by the bursting of a shell, and many English were killed and wounded there [...] The arable ground round about is thickly covered with graves of men and horses.' [Letterpress text by Walsh, printed alongside Stadler's aquatint, August 23rd, 1815]. We have been unable to trace any original drawings by Walsh offered at auction.