[14] The contemporary French poet J-F. Destigny described it as "a dark memory, an intimate pain, a thrilling drama of love and misfortune that bears the stamp of a noble character.

Laure est là sur son lit, comme un ange qui dort: Viens couronner de fleurs ta jeune fiancée !

Elle t'aimait dés l'aube, on t'éloigna le soir; Ton départ pour son cœur fut comme un coup de lance !

)[19][20] The entry for Barker's Parisina in the catalogue for the Paris Salon of 1842[21] quotes (in French translation) the lines that inspired the painting: And heedless as the dead are they Of aught around, above, beneath; As if all else had passed away, They only for each other breathe... Of guilt, of peril, do they deem In that tumultuous tender dream ?

By choosing these lines, Barker focuses on the intensity of their love, picking up the broader theme of illicit lovers but also highlighting Byron's homage to Dante's Paolo and Francesca.

[8][9] The next year, another painting inspired by the poem, by another Englishman in Paris, Ford Madox Brown,[23] was rejected by the Salon with "a polite accompanying note stating that the subject was too improper for the walls of the French gallery under Louis Philippe.

"[24] Brown ran afoul of the Salon committee by concentrating on the moment an enraged Azo hears Parisina murmur words of love to Hugo in her sleep.

Nevertheless, a contemporary critic cautioned that mothers entering the gallery should avert the eyes of their daughters from the sight of "a swooning Parisina on a gentleman's knees.

[29] Barker made a speciality of painting panoramic images with many figures whose faces were reproduced from actual portraits; when sold as engravings, these would be accompanied by a numbered key identifying the various persons.

A contemporary critic noted that it was such "scenes of modern warfare by which Mr. Barker has chiefly made his reputation, and that have become popular by means of the engraver's aid; many of these pictures have never been exhibited except in the galleries of the printsellers for whom they were painted….the majority are on canvas of very large dimensions.

"[30] He nevertheless occupied a pre-eminent place in a particular niche of British art; a retrospective on his 40-year career written in 1878 began, "If England possessed, what France has at Versailles, a gallery almost expressly devoted to a pictorial record of her military exploits, the artist whose works would find the most prominent place in such a collection would assuredly be Mr. T. Jones Barker, who is certainly the Horace Vernet of England.…We can scarcely pay Mr. Baker a greater compliment…he remains master of the battlefield among English artists.

Barker also specialized in panoramic historical or imaginary gatherings which featured scores of recognizable officials and celebrities, such as The Spa Promenade of 1871.

Following its purchase by the National Portrait Gallery in 1974, it became a favourite late twentieth-century icon of Victorianism, much reproduced in books, and Barker's best-known painting.

In the exhibition's catalogue and companion book, an essay by Jan Marsh, "Icon of the Age: 'Africa', Victoria and The Secret of England's Greatness," examined the painting at length, and prompted other art historians and social scientists to do likewise.

"[36] Barker may have been inspired by an image that appeared in 1859 on the front page of the British Workman, in a story that purported to recount the visit of an African ambassador sent by his monarch to discover the secret of England's greatness.

Victoria "did not…show the ambassador her diamonds and her jewels, and her rich ornaments, but handing him a beautifully bound copy of the Bible, she said, 'Tell the Prince that THIS IS THE SECRET OF ENGLAND’S GREATNESS.

'"[37] On a formal level, "the arrangement in the painting of the two protagonists recalls a number of iconic visual precedents such as the visit of the Magi to the Virgin and Child, whilst the kneeling black figure is reminiscent of the typical Abolitionist depiction of the freed slave.…Everything in the painting converges at the point where white hands and black hands nearly, but never, must never meet, over the transference of the Bible.

[39] Barker died at his Hampstead home, 32 Steeles Road, on 27 March 1882 at the age of 68, and was buried in a family grave on the western side of Highgate Cemetery (plot no 15902).

Waterloo is a battle remembered in popular consciousness for a number of significant moments—the charge of the Union Brigade, the defence of Hougoumont and the repeated attacks of the French cavalry—all of which have been celebrated in famous paintings of national importance.