Lot 22: GEORGE DAWE (LONDON 1781-1829) Portrait of Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), 1st Duke of Wellington, half-length, in a dark jacket with a white waistcoat and a pleated jabot,

GEORGE DAWE (LONDON 1781-1829) Portrait of Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), 1st Duke of Wellington, half-length, in a dark jacket with a white waistcoat and a pleated jabot, Oil on canvas, 89.5 by 71 cm.
Provenance: with Frost & Reed Ltd., London.
with John Levy Galleries, New York.
Studebaker Collection, Chicago.
Anonymous sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, 20 March 1941, lot 57.

Arthur Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington, soldier and statesman and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century. Known simply as "The Duke of Wellington" he defeated Napoleon together with Gebhard von Blücher (1742-1819) at The Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The Duke of Wellington was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1828 until 1830 and was Interim Prime Minister in November and December of 1834.

George Dawe was a renowned portrait painter of military men who defeated Napoleon. Following this success, Tsar Alexander I (1777-1825) commissioned over 300 portraits of senior Russian military staff for the Military Gallery in the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and Dawe became the first official portrait painter of the Imperial Court of Russia in 1828.