The Village of Waterloo, with travellers purchasing the relics that were found in the field of battle

Unlike France, England had no state-sponsored programme to encourage the creation of battle paintings during the era of the Napoleonic Wars. But for many artists, the accessibility of Waterloo and its patriotic appeal of the battle made it a popular subject. One of the British artists inspired to depict Waterloo was George Jones, (1786-1869), an army officer and a Royal Academician who specialised in military art.

While Jones did not actually fight at Waterloo, he was part of the army of occupation that subsequently occupied Paris. In the aftermath of the battle, he made numerous sketches of its terrain. Some of these were published in a book of engravings entitled The Battle of Waterloo … by a Near Observer (1817). His continued interest in the battle as a subject for his submissions to the Royal Academy’s annual exhibitions earned him the title ‘Waterloo Jones’.

Perhaps his most distinctive work on the subject was not a battle scene, but rather The Village of Waterloo (1821). Jones locates his depiction of the subject in 1815, just after the battle, when bodies were still being buried and military debris was lying about. He shows a group of sightseers getting ready to depart in a coach, while several others are examining battlefield memorabilia that a Belgian woman is selling. Jones illustrates the international nature of the Allied army by including a Prussian soldier offering relics to a British officer and a Highlander with the party of tourists.

For the rest of the nineteenth century, Waterloo’s proximity to England and continental Europe made it a major tourist destination. The town’s inhabitants were able to make handsome profits by acting as battlefield guides and from peddling items from the dead as souvenirs.