The Entrance into Toulouse, July 12, 1814 and the Dukedom of Wellington Conferred
Made and published by Thomas Stothard British
Printer McQueen & Co. British
Not on view
In 1814 Stothard won a competition to design a large gilt-silver ceremonial shield honoring Arthur Wellesley, duke of Wellington, for his military successes in the Iberian peninsula. Wellesley's leadership in the Peninsular War (1808–14), helped push French forces out of Portugal and Spain, unseat Napoleon, and reopen British trade with the Continent. A group of London merchants and bankers sponsored the competition and Stothard's designs were cast by the silversmith Benjamin Smith, working for the firm of Green, Ward and Green. In 1822 the shield was presented to the duke and put on display at Apsley House in London. Two years earlier, Stothard had etched his designs at the same scale as the shield. These two panels show Wellesley's victorious entrance into the southern French city of Toulouse in 1814, and the ceremony at which he was made duke.