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Description: | Bronze equestrian statuette. This equestrian statuette was made by Alfred, Count D’Orsay for reproduction in bronze in 1845. In March that year D’Orsay recorded that the Duke declared it to be ‘the finest thing he has ever seen and the only portrait by which he would wish to be known to posterity.’ The artist was later commissioned to produce a Parian marble bust of the Duke (likewise planned for mass production) and an oil portrait of him, of which at least three versions exist including one in the British Embassy in Paris.
According to the inscription on the base, this statuette was a gift from the Duke to Lady Mary Catherine, Marchioness of Salisbury, the second wife of the Third Marquess of Salisbury (Prime Minister 1885-86). A close confidant of Wellington, Mary Catherine was one of a number of younger women friends whose company the Duke enjoyed in his old age. Well over 50 years younger than the Duke, she was often seen walking arm in arm with him in St James’s Park. The date that the Duke gave Mary the statuette – 18 June 1852 – suggests he may have intended it to be a vestige of himself. Within three months he had died. | Subjects: | horseback 1st Duke of Wellington 19th century costume horse Arthur Wellesley duke male portrait field marshal man sword prime minister | Temporal: | 1852 | Source: | Government Art Collection | Creator: | Alfred, Count d'Orsay | Identifier: | http://www.gac.culture.gov.uk/work.aspx?... | Go to resource |
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