Study for The Battle of Waterloo

Study for The Battle of Waterloo

Jan Willem Pieneman

Details

Medium
zwart krijt
Dimensions
height 273 mm x width 378 mm
Holding institution
Rijksmuseum
Image provider
rijksmuseum
License
Public Domain
Credit
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Art Genome Taxonomy

11 tags

Subject Matter

  • War and Military Both · 99%

    The title identifies the subject as The Battle of Waterloo, while the image shows uniformed soldiers, mounted troops, weapons, and battlefield activity.

  • Equestrian Visual · 98%

    Numerous mounted figures and horses occupy the central, upper, and foreground areas of the composition.

  • Human Figure Visual · 98%

    The sheet contains many identifiable human figures, including soldiers in varied standing, mounted, fallen, and gesturing poses.

  • Movement Visual · 97%

    Raised weapons, rearing and fallen horses, twisting bodies, and repeated diagonal gestures create a pronounced sense of physical action.

Visual Qualities

  • Dense Composition Visual · 97%

    Figures, horses, weapons, and overlapping bodies occupy almost the entire inset image field, producing a compressed and crowded arrangement.

Medium and Techniques

  • Drawing Both · 99%

    The Rijksmuseum classifies the work as a drawing, and the image visibly consists of drawn lines, contours, and tonal hatching on a sheet.

  • Hatching Visual · 95%

    The drawing uses repeated short strokes and cross-directional hatching to build clothing, horses, ground, and shadow.

  • Study Both · 98%

    The catalog title explicitly identifies the work as a study, and the image shows a preparatory composition with passages that are more fully developed than others.

  • Work on Paper Both · 96%

    The object is cataloged as a drawing in black chalk, and the reproduction clearly shows a drawn image on a paper sheet with a broad margin.

Time Periods

  • 19th Century Art Metadata · 95%

    The Rijksmuseum dates the work to circa 1824, placing it in the nineteenth century.

Materials

  • Chalk Metadata · 99%

    The catalog medium is recorded as “zwart krijt,” or black chalk; the visible dark drawing medium is consistent with that description.

Source & rights

Jan Willem Pieneman. Study for The Battle of Waterloo. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.