3-078-211 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Campagne de France", or "1814", by Meissonier, recently sold for £34,000, 1890. Engraving from a photograph by Lecadre. Painting from the "Napoleonic Cycle," [which] '...has just changed owners, at a fabulous price...in 1864, the sum paid by M. Delahante - 70,000 francs (£2800) - was considered enormous...Since then the work has been so frequently engraved and otherwise reproduced, that the far-sighted purchaser must long since have recouped himself his original outlay. The re-sale, therefore, of the picture to M. Chauchard for the sum of 850,000 francs (£34,000) is the more noteworthy, especially as M. Meissonier is still living...The picture...is supposed to depict one of the last scenes of that grand drama which brought the First Empire to a close, on the stubbornly contested fields of Champagne...we see the Emperor slowly retiring from some hard-fought and unnamed field, retracing the road which, as the deep ruts in the snow bear witness, his troops had traversed, perhaps, only a few hours before, with hopes of victory. The Emperor rides alone, on his famous white charger Marengo, silent and despondent...behind him is "le plus brave des braves," Marshal Ney...Marshal Berthier...has fallen asleep in his saddle...from sheer exhaustion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.