Depictions in art
Copenhagen was depicted as "a bay, a grey and a chestnut" in various paintings during his lifetime and after his death. In one instance the choice of his coat colour was due to personal preference. Copenhagen was painted accurately as a chestnut by Edwin Landseer, but the original work was repainted with Copenhagen as a grey on the orders of
Lady Charles Wellesley due to her "having a preference for the grey colour in horses."
The Duke of Wellington and Copenhagen were the subject of a "colossal" bronze statue designed by Matthew Cotes Wyatt and his son James. Construction of the statue began in 1840, four years after Copenhagen's death, and lasted until 1843. The 40-tonne (40,000 kg), 8-metre-long (26 ft) and 9-metre-tall (30 ft) statue was unveiled on 28 September 1846 with much fanfare and was hoisted into a prominent position on top of the Triumphal Arch, then located a short distance from the Duke's London residence, Apsley House, on Hyde Park Corner. Copenhagen's belly had a girth of 22 feet and eight inches and the section was used to host a "celebratory dinner" for Wyatt before the work was completed, and a "rider on horseback could readily pass under Copenhagen's torso without danger of scraping his beaver hat." The portrayal was generally ridiculed in the press and by the public with a French spectator to the unveiling reportedly saying, "We have been avenged!" A young soldier reportedly said Wyatt's statue was "warning ambitious young officers of the fate that awaits them if ever they are so unfortunate as to achieve greatness." The statue was viewable from Apsley House and remained at the Hyde Park location for the remainder of the Duke's life.
Wyatt reportedly had difficulty sculpting the figure of Copenhagen and did not want to base the statue on Copenhagen's actual form in his later years, which was short, "calf-kneed and cow-hocked [with] quarters that drooped in a most unattractive fashion." As a substitute, he based the statue on the conformation and measurements of the Thoroughbred racehorse Recovery, which he obtained from The Pictorial Gallery of Racehorses. During construction, the Duke's son and the artist Edwin Landseer toured Wyatt's foundry and viewed the cast of the horse's head. The rendition of Copenhagen's face with prominent flared nostrils was likened to "something like a pig's snout" by the press, which the second Duke asserted was an accurate portrayal and "very like Copenhagen."
