NAM.2019-03-7-1-1

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough at the Siege of Tournai, 1709. Oil on canvas by John Wootton (1682-1764), 1720 (c). Associated with the Siege of Tournai, War of the Spanish Succession, Northern Europe (1702-1713) 1709. The French fortress of Tournai, under the command of Marshal de Villars, was besieged and captured by an army commanded by the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy on 3 September 1709. Unlike Malplaquet and Mons, Marlborough’s other great victories of 1709, there are very few depictions of Tournai. Marlborough is so closely associated with all of his victories that he dominates the iconography of them, as here. Wootton painted a number of works of Marlborough’s campaigns, often borrowing details from Louis Laguerre’s murals at Blenheim Palace. He also shows the influence of his teacher, Jan Wyck, from whom he appears to have copied the mule train in this work.

Tournai, Siege of, 1709 (War of the Spanish Succession, Northern Europe 1702-1713)