1814. Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier
After accompanying the French army in the Austro-Italian War of 1859, Meissionier abandoned the small, Dutch 17th-century genre subjects for which he had become known and turned with even greater success to depicting events in the career of Napoleon I. In this small painting commissioned by the subject's nephew, Prince Napoleon, the emperor is portrayed in a forbidding landscape just after his last, hard-won victory in the 1814 French campaign that was fought at Arcis-sur-Aube, near Troyes: 23,000 French troops withstood the onslaught of 90,000 Austrians, but were unable to capitalize on their victory.
1862
oil on panel
Height: 32.4 cm (12.8 in). Width: 24.2 cm (9.5 in). ; Framed Height: 51.75 cm (20.4 in). Width: 43.66 cm (17.2 in). Depth: 7.46 cm (2.9 in).
Current location
Walters Art Museum Link back to Institution infobox template wikidata:Q210081
Accession number 37.52
Place of creation France
Object history
Prince Napoléon, Vente publique de vingt-six tableaux, Paris, April 4, 1868, no. 18
Bouruet-Aubertot [date and mode of acquisition unknown]
J. Ruskin [date and mode of acquisition unknown]
J. Ruskin Sale, London, June 3, 1882, no. 111
Defoer Sale, Paris, May 22, 1886, no. 23 [see George A. Lucas diary, May 22, 1886]
1886: purchased by William T. Walters, Baltimore
[George A. Lucas as agent (?)]
1894: inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore
1931: bequeathed to Walters Art Museum by Henry Walters
Exhibition history International Exhibition. 1862. The Taste of Maryland: Art Collecting in Maryland 1800-1934. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1984. Cavaliers and Cardinals: Nineteenth Century French Antecdotal Painting. Taft Museum of Art, Cincinatti; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Arnot Art Museum, Elmira. 1992. Vive la France! French Treasures from the Middle Ages to Monet. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1999-2000. A Magnificent Age: Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2002-2004. 19th Century Masterpieces from the Walters Art Museum. Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara; Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin. 2010-2011.
Credit line Acquired by William T. Walters, 1886
Inscriptions [Signature] Lower right: E [conjoined] MEISSONIER; [Date] Lower right: 1862
See also: Napoleon Bonaparte, Paintings, Drawings
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