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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.
Crossing the Great Saint Bernard, the Hospice, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827
$275
€245 · £210
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. Printed image clean.
- Collection
- Battle scenes
- Era
- 1790 to 1815, Napoleonic wars
- Stock no.
- BG-14174-3-54
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 the army crossing the Great Saint Bernard pass in May 1800, from Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered PASSAGE DU MONT St BERNARD above the image. The hospice buildings stand on the snow saddle above, soldiers haul on ropes at the left, monks hand out food from baskets and Bonaparte stands on foot in the snow, pointing, with mounted officers around him.
The script caption below the image reads: A pied au milieu des troupes, dans les neiges des alpes comme dans les sables de Syrie, Bonaparte allégeait la fatigue du soldat en la partageant, des vivres leur sont distribués par les Cénobites qui desservent l'hospice de St Bernard. In English: On foot among his troops, in the snows of the Alps as in the sands of Syria, Bonaparte lightened the soldier's fatigue by sharing it; food is handed out to them by the monks who serve the hospice of Saint Bernard.
The work appeared at Brussels in 1827 under the imprint of the Lithographie royale de Jobard, in two volumes. Its title describes a text written by a society of men of letters from the new documents dictated and corrected at Saint Helena by Napoleon himself. The plates are by Jean-Baptiste Madou, then in his early thirties.
This version, with the hospice and the monks, is far less familiar than the equestrian image painted by David. It is printed from the stone in black on a cream wove sheet, the tone built from crayon rather than from cut line, and it is uncolored.
Condition: Age toning, darker at the edges; handling soiling along the edges and scattered foxing in the margins. Printed image clean.
Framed simply, with a generous mat to let the wide margins show, the plate suits a study, a paneled dining room or a hallway, and it sits naturally beside other Napoleonic material such as campaign maps and portraits of the marshals.
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.
