View source for Edith Recovering Harold's Body after the Battle of Hastings

{{Infobox artwork
| image_file=Horace Vernet Edith retrouvant le corps d'Harold 1827.jpg
| image_size=400px
| title= Edith Recovering Harold's Body after the Battle of Hastings
| artist=[[Horace Vernet]]
| year=1827
| type=[[Oil painting|Oil on canvas]], [[history painting]]
| height_metric=370
| width_metric=430  
| metric_unit=cm
| imperial_unit=in
| museum=[[Musée Thomas-Henry]]
| city=[[Cherbourg]]
}}

'''''Edith Recovering Harold's Body after the Battle of Hastings''''' is an 1827 [[history painting]] by the French artist [[Horace Vernet]].<ref>Ruutz-Rees p.12-13</ref> It depicts the aftermath of the [[Battle of Hastings]] in 1066 during the [[Norman Conquest of England]], where the English monarch [[Harold Godwinson]] was defeated and killed in the fighting. 

==History and description==
The painting shows a famous scene as [[Edith the Fair]], accompanied by some [[monks]], scoured the battlefield for her husband, the fallen Harold. Edith, in the company of an older woman, and a monk, both point to the dead body of the king. He is lying in a broken [[palisade]], partially naked, with a sheet hiding his face which has been disfigured by an [[arrow]].<ref>Harkett & Hornstein p.162-64</ref> 

British historical themes were very fashionable in France during the [[Second Bourbon Restoration|Restoration era]], particularly those of [[Walter Scott]]. Vernet produced several paintings including this one.<ref>Fahy p.326-27</ref>

It was one of several historical paintings Vernet exhibited at the [[Salon (Paris)|Paris Salon]] of 1827.<ref>Harkett & Hornstein p.162</ref> In 1828 it was exhibited in [[London]] at [[William Armfield Hobday]]'s gallery in [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]].<ref>''The London Magazine''. Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1828. p.229-30</ref> Today it is in the collection of [[Musée Thomas-Henry]] in [[Cherbourg]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.culture.gouv.fr/regions/drac-normandie/Actualites/Restauration-d-un-tableau-d-Horace-Vernet-Edith-retrouvant-le-corps-d-Harold-apres-la-bataille-d-Hastings | title=Restauration d'un tableau d'Horace Vernet : Edith retrouvant le corps d'Harold après la bataille d'Hastings | date=18 February 2021 }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Fahy, Everett (ed.) ''The Wrightsman Pictures''. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005.
* Harkett, Daniel & Hornstein, Katie (ed.) ''Horace Vernet and the Thresholds of Nineteenth-Century Visual Culture''. Dartmouth College Press, 2017.
* Ruutz-Rees, Janet Emily. ''Horace Vernet''. Scribner and Welford, 1880.

{{Horace Vernet}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edith Recovering Harold's Body after the Battle of Hastings}}
[[Category:1827 paintings]]
[[Category:Paintings by Horace Vernet]]
[[Category:History paintings]]
[[Category:Norman conquest of England]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Harold Godwinson]]
[[Category:Cherbourg-en-Cotentin]]
[[Category:Sussex in art]]