ANTOINE-JEAN GROS
75 Napoleon at the Battlefield of
Eylau
Pen and black and dark brown ink and graphite; H: 27
cm (io^5 /s in.); W: 44.9 cm (lyVs in.)
83.00.361
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: At top left, inscribed champ
de bataille d'Elau in graphite by Gros; at bottom left cor-
ner, collection mark of Defer-Dumesnil (L. 739).
PROVENANCE: Jean-Baptiste Debret, Paris; Pierre Defer,
Paris; Henri Dumesnil, Paris (sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris,
May 10-12, 1900 , lot 154); art market, Lausanne.
EXHIBITIONS: Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1884, no.
369-
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.THE BATTLE OF EYLAU TOOK PLACE ON FEBRUARY 8,
1807, and was among the bloodiest in Napoleon's cam-
paigns. Five weeks later, on March 17, Dominique
Vivant-Denon, director general of the Musee Napoleon,
announced a competition for the commission to paint the
emperor on the battlefield the day after the actual fight-
ing. Vivant-Denon described the scene the artists were
to depict, consisting of the emperor surveying the battle-
field and directing his troops to assist the wounded. A
specific anecdote was to be included, involving a
wounded Lithuanian hussar who offered his allegiance to
the emperor if he would heal him.^1
This drawing is a study for the oil sketch that won
the competition for Gros on the basis of the decision of
a panel from the fine arts section of the Institut Frangais
in June 1807. The oil sketch is in a Parisian private col-
lection.^2 It differs only in minor details from the painting,
now in the Louvre. By contrast, the oil sketch and the
painting depart significantly from the Museum's draw-
ing in that Napoleon is at the center of the latter com-
position and many more figures are included. Corre-
spondingly, the significance of individual participants
and their gestures is enhanced in the final version. The
drawing was first freely sketched in graphite lines
throughout, and then drawn over in thick black ink. The
rather schematic handling of both nudes and landscape
are characteristic of Gros.
The verso carries a slight graphite sketch of an un-
identifiable subject.1. P. Lelievre, "Napoleon sur le champ de bataille d'Eylau par
A. J. Gros," Bulletin de la Societe de 1'H.istoire de I'Art Fran^ais
(1955), pp. 53-55-- C. O. Zieseniss, "Napoleon a Eylau: Une esquisse de
Charles Meynier," La revue des arts 10, nos. 4-5 (1960), ill.
p. 217.
I7O FRENCH SCHOOL • GROS