Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau

Expand

IIIFView PDF

Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau

Artist Antoine-Jean Gros (French, 1771-1835)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1807

Dimensions41 1/4 x 57 1/8 in. (104.9 x 145.1 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1988.54

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 31

Label TextThe commanding figure of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821) surveys the carnage after the battle between French troops and combined Russian and Prussian forces at Eylau (now in Russia). Fighting in snow and bitter cold on February 7 and 8, 1807, the armies were deadlocked until the Russians retreated during the night, leaving the French victors by default. The staggering number of dead and wounded on both sides—some 50,000—made this one of the most devastating battles of the Napoleonic Wars. To quell criticism about the number of casualties at Eylau and to maintain Napoleon’s image as a forceful but compassionate leader, the French government sponsored a competition for the best painting depicting Napoleon’s visit to the battlefield. Antoine-Jean Gros entered this canvas and won the commission for the immense 17 x 25 ½ foot version in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Downplaying French casualties, Gros showed mostly Russian dead and wounded being tended by French medical officers. Though it fulfilled its role as state propaganda, the painting also presented a horrifically realistic depiction of the bloody costs of war.Published References"Paris sous l'Empire," Le Moniteur. Musée Napoleon, Apr. 2, 1807, pp. 107-109.

Annales du musée d l'école moderne des Beaux Arts, 1808, p. 77.

Tripier-Lefranc, J., Histoire de la vie et de la mort du Baron Gros, Paris, 1887, pp. 252-253, 412-413, 442.

de Montgaillard, D., Les artistes toulousians et l'art à Toulouse au 19e siecle, Paris, 1924, p. 19.

Lemonnier, H., Gros, Paris, 1928, p. 38.

Lelierre, P., "Napoleon sur le Champ de Bataille d'Eylau par A.J. Gros: Precisions sur les conditions de la Commande," Bulletin sur la Societe de l'Histoire de l'Art Francais, 1955, pp. 51-55.

Zieseniss, C.O., "Napoleon à Eylau, une esquisse de Charles Meynier," Revue des Arts et des Musée de France, IV-V (1960), pp. 213-220, fig. 3.

MacCoubrey, J.W., "Gros' 'Battle of Eylau' and the Roman Imperial Art," Art Bulletin XLIII, 2, 1961, pp. 135-139, fig. 2.

Herbert, R., "Baron Gros's Napoleon and Voltaire's Henri IV," in F. Haskell et al, ed., The Artist and the Writer in France, Essays in Honour of Jean Seznec, Oxford, 1974, p. 61, no. 35, p. 66, no. 56.

Detroit Institute of Arts, French Painting 1774-1830: The Age of Revolution, 1975, p. 546.

Campbell, Richard, "Charles Meynier's Preliminary Study for Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau," Master Drawings, Spring 1980, p. 37 (n. 9).

Griener, Pascal, "L'art de persuader par l'image sous le premier Empire," Ecrit-Voir, no. 4, 1984, pp. 8-21.

Turquin, Eric, "La victoire selon Gros," Connaissance des Arts, no. 431, January 1988, pp. 70-75, ill.

Goldner G., European Drawings I, Catalogue of the Collections, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1988, p. 170.

Gustafson, Eleanor H., "Museum Accessions," Antiques, vol. 137, no. 2, Feb. 1990, pp. 426, 440, repr.

"La chronique des arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 115, no. 1454, March 1990, repr. p. 54.

Laveissiere, Sylvain, Gericault, Paris, 1991, p. 337.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 115, repr. (col.).

Prendergast, Christopher, Napoleon and History Painting: Antoine-Jean Gros's 'La Bataille d'Eylau', Oxford, 1997, p. 154, ff., fig. 30.

Southgate, M. Therese, "The Cover," JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 278, no. 5, Aug. 6, 1997, p. 349, repr. (col.) on cover.

Taylor, Bradley L., "The Effect of Surrogation on Viewer Response to Expressional Qualities in Works of Art," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 2001, p. 114, pl. A1, p. 170.

Morse, P. J., "A.J. Gros' 'Napoleon on the Battlefield at Eylau': Infection in the Canvas," The Consortium on Revolutionary Europe, 1750-1850: Selected Papers, 1999, [Tallahassee] Florida State University, Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution, 1999, pp. 316-332 (esp. p. 322), fig. 3 is not TMA's picture, per author's letter dated 5/9/2003.

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 30, repr. (col.).

O'Brien, David, After the Revolution: Antoine-Jean Gros, Painting and Propaganda Under Napoleon, University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006, p. 156, fig. 91, p. 159 (col.), p. 262, no. 6, plus (cf. Louvre) pp. 162-170.

Mayer-Michalon, Isabelle, Charles Meynier, 1763-1832, Paris, Arthena, 2008, p. 139, fig. 28.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 225, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 32, repr. (col.).

Maestro Jr., Calvin J., Leadership Lessons from History: A Study Guide Written for Physicians & Other Healthcare Leaders, Bloomington, Indiana, AuthorHouse, 2015, repr. p. 122.

Cordier, Sylvain ed., Napoleon: The Imperial Household, exh. catalogue, Montreal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, p. 237, repr. (col.) fig. 284, p. 237.

Exhibition HistoryParis, Louvre, Competition for Commission, May 1807.

Paris, Musee du Petit Palais, "Gros, ses amis, ses élèves," 1936, no. 41.

Buenos Aires, "De David à nos jours," 1939, no. 72. Traveled to Montevideo, San Francisco, Washington, Chicago, 1940-1945.

New York, Richard L. Feigen & Co., Neo-Classicism and Romanticism in French Painting 1774-1826, 1994, no. 33, pp. 94, repr. 96.

Paris, Musee du Louvre, Dominique-Vivant Denon: l'oeil de Napoleon, 1999-2000, no. 347, pp. 327-328, 333, 334, 336, repr.

New York, Frick Collection, Masterpieces of European Painting from the Toledo Museum of Art, 2002-2003, repr. (col.) p. [12].

London, Tate Britain; Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; New York, Metropolitan Musem of Art, Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics, 2003-2004, no. 47, pp. 17, 68, 77, 108, 109, 141, 159, repr. (col.) p. 108.

Saint Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum; New York, American Federation of Arts; Paris, Les Arts Décoratifs, Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800-1815, June 17-September 16, 2007, [not listed or pictured in catalog].

Montreal, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Napoleon: The Imperial Household, January 23, 2018-May 13, 2018.