View Of The King's Army In Front Of Douai – Chalcography Of The Louvre, Adam Frans Van Der Meulen.

View of the King’s Army before Douai – Louvre Chalcography,
After Adam Frans van der Meulen (1632–1690)
Engraved in the 17th century by Robert Bonnart and François Baudouins

Print from the Louvre Chalcography, late 19th–early 20th century

Etching and burin on paper, printed from the original plate preserved by the Chalcographie du Louvre.

This important panoramic composition depicts the army of Louis XIV encamped outside Douai in 1667, during the War of Devolution.

The scene depicts the vast military encampment set up on the outskirts of the city: soldiers and officers, cavalrymen, horses, tents, and military installations fill the foreground, while the landscape extends broadly into the background all the way to the city of Douai.

The original title of the composition reads:
“View of the King’s Army, encamped before Douai, near the Notre-Dame Gate, in the year 1667.”

The engraving was based on a composition by Adam Frans van der Meulen, a painter of Flemish origin in the service of Louis XIV who was particularly known for his depictions of the king’s military campaigns and conquests.
A remarkable technical feature of this vast panoramic view is that it is printed in two parts corresponding to the front and back sides of a single copper plate. The two visible copper surfaces on the print thus constitute the two complementary halves of a single composition.

An early print from the Chalcographie du Louvre bearing its dry stamp.

Dimensions with frame: 153 x 73 cm