PAUL LOUIS NARCISSE GROLLERON | APRÈS LA BATAILLE (WATERLOO)

Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 23, 1989, lot 175, illustrated

Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

In Paul Louis Narcisse Grolleron’s moving Après la bataille (Waterloo), a cuirassier of Napoleon’s army leads his horse through a field scarred by the bloody battle that has just ended. The soldier marches forward to an unknown future, his eyes masked by his distinctive helmet, as smoke from an unseen fire blots out the sun.

The Battle of Waterloo, fought on June 18, 1815, signaled the end of the Napoleonic War, the defining event of the first half of the 19th Century. The battle saw the French forces, under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte, defeated by a European coalition under the command of Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who went on to be England’s Prime Minister. The resounding defeat marked the end of more than twenty-five years of war for the French, dating back to the Revolution of 1789. In France, Waterloo was memorialized throughout the nineteenth century with architectural monuments, paintings and sculptures, and by the enduring fame of Victor Hugo’s poem Après la bataille, which celebrated the fighters who maintained their dignity in the wake of defeat.