A battle rages in the background while a group of officers anxiously gather around their seated commander, whose slumped appearance suggests that all is not well. The man is Sir Ralph Abercromby, and the painting shows the Battle of Alexandria, 21 March 1801, which put an end to Napoleon's Egyptian empire and with it the French threat to British India and other territories east of Suez. De Loutherbourg has chosen the moment of battle when Abercromby was fatally wounded, introducing an element of personal tragedy into the national victory.