Attributed To Auguste Raffet, Episode Of The Retreat Of The French Army From Russia

Attributed to AUGUSTE RAFFET
EPISODE OF THE RETREAT OF THE FRENCH ARMY FROM RUSSIA

AUGUSTE RAFFET
Paris, 1804 – 1860, Genoa

Pencil and grey wash with white heightening on toned paper
32 × 48.5 cm / 12.6 × 19.1 in
Framed: 53 × 70.5 cm / 20.9 × 27.8 in
Museum mount; frame in the style of the 1930s

This powerful composition depicts an episode from the retreat of Napoleon’s Grande Armée from Russia, one of the most dramatic and traumatic events of the early nineteenth century. Rather than presenting a heroic narrative, the artist focuses on the disintegration of order: exhausted soldiers, scattered groups, and the silent weight of collective catastrophe.

The scene unfolds across a wide horizontal plane, structured by a dense movement of retreating troops and punctuated by figures collapsing under fatigue. The absence of a central heroic focus reinforces the impression of fragmentation, a characteristic feature of visual interpretations of the Napoleonic campaigns in mid-nineteenth-century France.

The technique — pencil and grey wash heightened with white on toned paper — plays a crucial expressive role. The white passages evoke snow, frozen air, and a heavy winter sky, while simultaneously intensifying the dramatic tension of the scene. The atmosphere seems to dissolve into cold and light, enveloping the figures in a landscape of exhaustion and loss.

The attribution to Auguste Raffet may be supported by both the subject matter and the stylistic approach. Raffet, a pupil of Nicolas Toussaint Charlet, was among the most important interpreters of the Napoleonic legend in nineteenth-century France. His works — ranging from the campaigns in Egypt to Waterloo — are distinguished by their vivid observation, dynamic compositions, and a distinctive focus on the lived experience of soldiers rather than idealised heroism.

Like many of Raffet’s lithographic and drawn compositions, the present work avoids theatrical emphasis in favour of immediacy and emotional truth. The figures are rendered with economy and precision, their gestures conveying fatigue, resignation, and quiet endurance. This approach aligns closely with Raffet’s broader artistic project: a retrospective vision of the Empire grounded not in triumph, but in memory, sacrifice, and the human cost of history.