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1807 Friedland |
Artist:
Ernest Meissonier (French, Lyons 1815–1891 Paris)
Date:
ca. 1861–75
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
53 1/2 x 95 1/2 in. (135.9 x 242.6 cm)
Classification:
Paintings
Credit Line:
Gift of Henry Hilton, 1887
This work, the largest and most ambitious painting by an artist renowned for meticulously rendered cabinet pictures, evokes one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s greatest victories. Meissonier made hundreds of preparatory studies for it, including drawings and sculptural models. He conceived the picture as part of a cycle of five key episodes in the life of the Emperor, only one other of which was completed: The Campaign of France—1814, an image of defeat (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). The present work gained notoriety in 1876, when the American department store magnate Alexander T. Stewart purchased it from the artist, sight unseen, for the then astronomical sum of $60,000.
Provenance
Alexander T. Stewart, New York (1876; bought from the artist for $60,000); his widow, Cornelia M. Stewart, New York (1876–d. 1886; her estate sale, American Art Association, New York, March 23–25, 1887, no. 210, as "Friedland, 1807," for $66,000 to J. F. Fletcher for Hilton); Henry Hilton, New York (1887)
Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org
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