'The Dead Soldier', 1832

Mezzotint by H Dawe, after Joseph Wright of Derby, 1789. Published by H Dawe, London, 1832.

This poignant picture depicts a young widow cradling her baby as she grieves over the body of her dead husband, the fallen British soldier who lies beside her.

The original painting was first exhibited in the Royal Academy in London in 1789 to great acclaim. Many people who viewed it profoundly affected by the pathos of the scene and William Hayley, one of the artist's friends, was even moved to tears by the experience, writing in a letter to his wife 'I shall beg you and Mrs Beridge to call our friend Wright, and tell him from me, that I and all the lovers of painting with whom I have conversed, since my return to town, consider his pictures this year, as the very flower of the royal Exhibition. His dying soldier made me literally shed tears'.