Duchess of Richmond's ball
The Duchess of Richmond's Ball was a ball hosted by Charlotte Lennox, Duchess of Richmond in Brussels on 15 June 1815, the night before the Battle of Quatre Bras. Charlotte's husband Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond, was in command of a reserve force in Brussels, which was protecting that city in case Napoleon Bonaparte invaded.
The Duchess of Richmond's Ball (1870s) by Robert Alexander Hillingford
Intelligence of the Battle of Ligny (1818) by William Heath, depicting a Prussian officer informing the Duke of Wellington that the French have crossed the border at Charleroi and that the Prussians would concentrate their army at Ligny
Before Waterloo (1868) by Henry O'Neil, depicting officers departing from the Duchess of Richmond's ball
The Black Brunswicker (1860) by John Everett Millais
A ball is a formal dance event often characterised by a banquet followed by a social dancing. Ball dancing emerged from formal dances during the Middle Ages and carried on through different iterations throughout succeeding centuries, such as the 17th century Baroque dance and the 18th century cotillion. Several variations exists such as the masquerade and debutante ball as well as the more modern prom.
Two ladies are presented to Emperor Franz Joseph at a ball in the Hofburg Imperial Palace, painting by Wilhelm Gause (1900)
A ball at the Russian imperial court in the 1910s
A Finnish author Väinö Linna (left) and his translator Nils-Börje Stormbom (right) in the middle of a ball at the 1968 Independence Day reception at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland
Five partner dance at a Colonial Ball in the Albert Hall Canberra (circa 2016) (sepia)
