Close-ups
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.
The Bridge of Arcole, the Flag of Lodi, 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-14174-3-22
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 on the bridge at Arcole, from Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered LE PONT D'ARCOLE in capitals above the image. The general strides forward across a timber bridge on brick piers with the standard streaming above him, an officer with drawn sword at his side, wounded men at his feet and grenadiers pressing up behind at the right, while houses on the far bank show through the smoke.
The printed caption below the image reads: Bonaparte déployant le drapeau de Lodi, tente le passage du pont d'Arcole. In English: Bonaparte, unfurling the flag of Lodi, attempts the crossing of the bridge of Arcole.
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.
Arcole, fought over three days in November 1796, produced the most reproduced image of the Italian campaign, the general carrying the colors onto the bridge under fire, and this version keeps the detail the caption insists on, that the flag he carried was the one from Lodi. 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. Printed image 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.
