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Framed and on the wall
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Festival at Milan, the Chariot Race, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827
€195
$220 · £165
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. Small light flecks in the image, otherwise clean.
- Collection
- Battle scenes
- Era
- 1790 to 1815, Napoleonic wars
- Stock no.
- BG-14174-3-31
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 games held at Milan, from Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered FÊTE À MILAN in capitals above the image. Chariots race at full gallop down a Milanese street, the leading pair of horses at full stretch in a cloud of dust, while Bonaparte stands with his officers and two seated ladies beneath a draped canopy at the left, mounted guards line the course and every window and balcony is crowded with spectators.
The printed caption below the image reads: Napoléon fait célébrer par des jeux, l'anniversaire de la fondation de la république française. In English: Napoleon celebrates with games the anniversary of the founding of the French republic.
Vie de Napoléon was published at Brussels in 1827 in two volumes by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, the press of Marcellin Jobard, with a text written by a society of men of letters from the new documents dictated and corrected by Napoleon himself at Saint Helena. Its lithographs are credited to Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877), who later became the best known Belgian genre painter of his generation.
The French republic dated its foundation from 22 September 1792, and its anniversary was kept with public festivals in Paris and in the sister republics. Civic festivals of the period are rarely illustrated at all, and the racing horses are among the liveliest drawing in the series. It is a crayon lithograph printed in black, uncolored as issued, with the lettered title above the image and the caption in script below.
Condition: Age toning, darker at the edges; handling soiling along the edges and scattered foxing in the margins. Small light flecks in the image, otherwise clean.
Hung at eye level where the caption can be read, the plate makes a natural gift for a reader of Napoleonic history or a collector of early lithography.
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.
