- 116
Lawrence Gahagan
Description
- Lawrence Gahagan
- Study of Napoleon Bonaparte's State Horses
- signed l.l.: L. Gahagan / Delin 1817; inscribed: l.c.: Bonapartes State Horses, further inscribed l.r.: 1 / used at Bonapartes Coronation / 2 / used on the celebration of his marriage / with Maria Louisa
- watercolour over pencil with pen and black and brown ink
- 35.4 by 26.6 cm.; 14 by 10 1/2 in.
Catalogue Note
Although this drawing is dated 1817 and therefore thirteen years after Napoleon's coronation and seven years after his marriage to Marie Louise, Archduchess of Austria, it is certainly connected with the fashion for all things Napoleonic that swept Britain in the years that immediately followed the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.
This Napoleonic fever had been capitalized on by the connoisseur and art collector William Bullock (1773-1849). In December 1815 he bought, from the British Government, Napoleon's captured state carriage, which contained a large variety of the ex-emperor's personal belongings. Not only did he embark on a country wide tour with these artefacts but he also created a Museum Napoleon, which he housed within his already existing Egyptian Hall Museum in Piccadilly, London.
It is not possible to prove that the present drawing was directly involved with this exhibition, however there is little doubt that it shows Lawrence Gahagan working on a theme that would have been of great interest to his contemporaries.
Gahagan was born in Ireland but successfully worked as a sculptor in England. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1798 and 1817.