Pair Of Lithos ... Return Of The Grognards ....

Exceptional period lithographs .... A little history: Marlet (Jean Henry) was one of the first painter to use the lithography process ... to distribute his paintings. Here he signed his collaboration with Charles Philibert de Lasteyrie du Saillant who worked in Paris between 1816 and 1825. The Napoleonic wars have inspired many works. These depict the moving turn of the countryside of those who have been nicknamed the "grognards". Faced with the poor living conditions in the countryside, especially in Poland in 1807, but also because of the irregular payment of their pay, the soldiers of the Grande Armée never ceased to express their discontent, Napoleon I then nicknamed them the "grognards". Our two lithographs, like instant photographs, testify to the suffering of these survivors, one is treated by a nun, while the other supported by children is reduced to begging. They are marching towards their only future: to open a tobacco bar ... Tobacconist: gift from Napoleon; ... Long live the Emperor.