Lot 1601 , Stocks & Sharpe after Daniel Maclise R.A. (1806-1870), pair of line engravings, 'The meeting of Wellington and Blücher at La Belle Alliance on the field of Waterloo' and 'The Death of Nelson on the Victory, Battle of Tra

Stocks & Sharpe after Daniel Maclise R.A. (1806-1870), pair of line engravings, 'The meeting of Wellington and Blücher at La Belle Alliance on the field of Waterloo' and 'The Death of Nelson on the Victory, Battle of Trafalgar 1805', published by the Arts Union 1874-5, 29 x 112cm
£200-300
The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo is a monumental wall painting by Irish painter Daniel Maclise, completed in 1861. It depicts the moment towards the end of the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815, when the commanders of the allied British and Prussian armies, the Duke of Wellington and Marshal Blücher, met near La Belle Alliance. Measuring 3.68 by 13.92 metres (12.1 ft × 45.7 ft), it is displayed in the Royal Gallery at the Palace of Westminster.

The work was commissioned in 1858, to decorate the newly reconstructed Palace of Westminster. Maclise first completed a full-size cartoon as a preparatory work in 1859, which is in the collection of the Royal Academy of Arts, and the painting was completed in 1861. It was intended to be a part of a series of 18 paintings by Maclise to decorate the Royal Gallery, but only two large panels were finished. The other large panel, The Death of Nelson, completed in 1865, depicts the death of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 (a full-size sketch for the Death of Nelson was purchased by the Walker Art Gallery in 1892). Prince Albert was one of the principal supporters of the project, but progress with the project was slow, and the remaining 16 pictures were cancelled after Albert's death in 1861.

Sold for £200