Allegory of Waterloo

Ward won a competition organised by the British Institution in 1816 to create an artwork to celebrate the final victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo the previous year.

Rather than painting portraits of the Duke of Wellington and his generals, or a scene from the battle, Ward proposed an allegorical treatment.

Ward's painting showed the Duke of Wellington in the red uniform of a British Field Marshal with decorations and sashes, standing in a triumphal chariot accompanied by the figure of Britannia.

The painting seems to have been inspired by a 17th-century tapestry, Triumph of the Eucharist over Ignorance and Blindness, from a 20-part series by Rubens on the Triumph of the Eucharist commissioned by Infanta Clara Eugenia, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, for the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales in Madrid; six of Ruben's preparatory oil sketches are held by the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Ward's painting took 6 years to complete, and the final work measured 21 × 35 feet (6.4 × 10.7 m), more than three times the expected size.