THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
The week brings us two more memorials of the Duke ; an equestrian statuette by Count d'Orsay, and a subject portrait by Mr. T. J. Barker.
The former is advertised as " the smaller and last " of Count d'Orsay's statuettes from the same original. The Duke sits Copenhagen in an attitude of entire soldierly repose, the telescope lightly held in his right hand, the reins in his left. The action of the horse is spirited, and the -work altogether accurate, handsome and elegant. Count d'Orsay'a artis- -tic abilities show to advantage in this as well as in other specimens visible at the same establishment—that of Mr. Walesby, of Waterloo Place. We understand that the Duke himself expressed a high opinion of the statuette, both verbally and by substantial patronage. Mr. Barker's picture, which is to be seen at Mr. Grundy's in Regent Street, represents the Duke life-size and full-length" He is "reading the Despatches from India announcing the Battles at Ferozepore with the
Sikhs" ; and is supposed to have just lighted upon a passage in Sir John Littler's report where the Sixty-second Regiment of Foot is stated to have
been seized with charge against which the Duke 'subsequently vindicated the regiment in the House of Lords. Mr. Barker comes well prepared to this task, having before, it may be remembered, painted a Wellington portrait in his picture of the meeting with Blucher at La Belle Alliance. For the present work he restudied his original carefully, and has produced an unmistakeable likeness ; though the flesh tints strike us as somewhat too warm and deep. The accessories—the " Waterloo elm- chair," the desk full of well-packed papers, the carpet, the portrait of Napoleon—all are actual fac-similes, taken from the private cabinet at Apsley House, and painted with a skill which we have before remarked in similar objects in the artist's pictures. The work is to be engraved in line by Mr. F. Bacon, as a companion to Delaroche's Napoleon at Fon- tainbleau.
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