Lot Essay
William Simpson was sent to the Crimea in 1854 to cover the war for Colnaghi and Day & Son, who produced a book of lithographs to document the war, described by Simpson in his biography as 'the last and largest work of the kind' ( The Autobiography of William Simpson, R.I., London, 1903, p. 14) The celebrated charge of the Heavy Cavalry took place on the 25 October 1854 at Balaklava and the inscription on the watercolour confirms this. However, it cannot have been painted on the same day, as Simpson did not arrive in the Crimea until the evening of 15 November. A sketchbook from Simpson's second visit to the Crimea in 1869, including a drawing of Balaklava, is in the Searight Collection, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.