The End of the Battle

The artist has painted an accurate view of the buildings of Hougoumont. The north gate has been opened to let out the defenders after the French have retreated. A Guards drummer offers water to a wounded Frenchman. The buildings are still on fire as there was little time for fire-fighting that day. One of the buildings that survived was the chapel which can be seen in the middle distance with a small turret on the roof. The Guards are less accurately portrayed as having plumes in their shakos and clean uniforms. They would have been covered in blood and dirt and their faces and hands black from firing flintlock firearms.

Regimental details