Wednesday 8 July 2020

The Iron Duke.

I spend a fair bit of my spare time looking at early photographs as I am fascinated by them and the proliferation of 'colourised' B/W images does in many cases really help to bring the subject back to life although often the colours are not totally accurate. This one just staggered me, an 1844 Daguerreotype of The Duke of Wellington taken on his 75th Birthday 175 years ago. It has been sensitively coloured.



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6 comments:

  1. MSFoy8 July 2020 at 07:29

    Excellent - not a man to mess with. I share your fascination with old photos - there are some pics around of some of Napoleon's soldiers, when they were old chaps, dressed up in their old uniforms, which is interesting but kind of sad. As soon as there is photography, the Crimean War, the ACW - we are suddenly reading about a war with real people in it. This maybe just reflects a lack of imagination on my part!

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    1. 'Lee.9 July 2020 at 02:38

      Hi Tony. The photographic images of the aftermath of the ACW battles are horrendous, difficult to erase from the mind once seen.

      Something haunting about this image of Wellington, when this was taken in 1844 it would apparently have taken around 20 minutes to expose, must have had some patience! I have been to Walmer Castle (where he died in 1852 a few times over the years, a moving experience to be in the room.

      https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/search-news/wellington-at-walmer/

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  2. ronniec8 July 2020 at 09:11

    I remember coming across this for the first time albeit in black and white. It had a huge affect on me too; still does.

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    1. 'Lee.9 July 2020 at 02:39

      Yes, it is indeed a very powerful image.

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  3. WSTKS-FM Worldwide8 July 2020 at 21:06

    It looks like Christopher Plummer was indeed a reasonably good choice to play the part.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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