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Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the piece could look; it is sold unframed unless the description says otherwise.
Bonaparte Takes Command of the Army of Italy, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827
£165
$220 · €195
Original print, not a reproduction.
Ships worldwide from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked. 14-day returns.
- Date
- 1827
- Technique
- Lithograph
- Coloring
- Uncolored
- Condition
- Good. Age toning, darker at the edges; handling soiling along the edges and scattered foxing in the margins. Light staining to the lower margin. Printed image clean.
- Collection
- Battle scenes
- Era
- 1790 to 1815, Napoleonic wars
- Stock no.
- BG-14174-3-5
What the condition grades mean
- Excellent
- Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
- Very good
- Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
- Good
- Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
- Fair
- Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
An original antique lithograph of Bonaparte showing the ragged army of Italy the plains below the Alps, from Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered ARRIVÉE A L'ARMÉE D'ITALIE (Arrival at the Army of Italy) above the image. The general, cloaked and flanked by his staff on a mountain ledge, points out over the plain at the left, while soldiers crowd in at the right and worn-out men with bandaged feet rest in the foreground beside a broken gun carriage.
The script caption below the image reads: Bonaparte, du haut des Alpes montrant à ses soldats les riches plaines de l'Italie: Camarades, leur dit-il, vous manquez de tout, là se trouve tout ce qui vous manque. Ces riches contrées nous appartiennent; allons en prendre possession. In English: Bonaparte, from the heights of the Alps, showing his soldiers the rich plains of Italy: Comrades, he said, you lack everything; there lies all that you lack. These rich lands belong to us; let us go and take possession of them.
Vie de Napoléon was issued at Brussels in 1827 in two volumes by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, the press of Marcellin Jobard, with a text compiled by a society of men of letters from the documents Napoleon dictated and corrected at Saint Helena. Its plates were drawn on stone by Jean-Baptiste Madou.
The address to the ragged army of Italy is among the most quoted passages of the Napoleonic literature, and it is printed here in full beneath the image. The image is a lithograph printed in black on wove paper, worked in soft crayon grain with no engraved line and no plate mark, and it is uncolored.
Condition: Age toning, darker at the edges; handling soiling along the edges and scattered foxing in the margins. Light staining to the lower margin. Printed image clean.
A single sheet from this series frames well in a plain dark molding with a wide off-white mat, and a row of three or four hung together makes a coherent wall for a study, a library or a hallway.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
