Two recent additions to the Military Collection focus on veterans of military service in the first decade of the 19th century during the Napoleonic Wars. The image below is actually from a panel of 15 similar figures painted from nature by Christian Gottfried Heinrich Geissler (1770-1844); a second panel bears a further group of veterans. Both are titled Trümmer der französichen Armee bei ihrer Rückkher ins Vaterland im Jahre 1813 [Retreat across Germany of the French Army in Shambles after the Disastrous War in Russia] and both prints can be viewed on the Cornell University digital archive. A blog about them describes the awful conditions that Napoleon’s army had to endure during its retreat from Russia.
The second image is a water-color measuring 13 x 9 inches. According to uniform historian, Christopher Bryant, “this is a very rare and compelling watercolor of a Royal Navy Lieutenant on half pay around 1815. This was the fate of apparently many impecunious junior officers, who when placed on shore and without a ship, faced very challenging economic circumstances if they did not have private means, or enough Prize money. The point of the painting seems to be that all he has is his kit bag and his single Lieutenant’s epaulette as all he has to show for his services to his country. Unshaven, down at heel and neglected by the authorities, apparently such men were not an uncommon sight in places like Portsmouth at the end of the War. It is very rare to find such an unsentimental view of one, however, as evidently a piece of social commentary.”
