Lot 618
ROBERT ALEXANDER HILLINGFORD (1828-1904)
GROUCHY OR BLUCHER?
Auction: 24 June 2015 at 19:00 BST
Description
Oil on panel
Dimensions
30cm x 20cm
Footnote
Note: The scene depicts the famous moment during the battle when Napoleon first saw the advancing mass of blue-coated troops on the right of his line approaching from some five miles away and was unable to make out from whose army they might be.
He took his telescope and peered at the troops as they emerged at the edge of the Blois de Paris. Before long, a captured Prussian cavalry officer was brought in and their identity was no longer in doubt.
Napoleon, who is shown before the farm at Rosomme, is wearing his familiar greatcoat over the uniform of an officer of Chasseurs-à-Cheval of the Imperial Guard and mounted on his grey horse. Behind him, two generals, an aide de camp of dragoons and another aide peer at the Prussians, while to his right another general discusses their identity with his aide de camp and an officer of the chasseurs. To the right, an officer and drummer of the Grenadiers of the Guard lead the Imperial escort while in the foreground two Polish lancers of the Guard are passing at the salute while they escort a Prussian hussar to the rear.