Murat Presents the Colors Taken in Italy, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827

An original antique lithograph from Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered "DRAPEAUX PRIS EN ITALIE" in open capitals above the image. The scene is a tall hall lit by a crystal chandelier and by candelabra held aloft by two sculpted figures at the upper left. The Directors, in cloaks and caps, sit and stand on a low dais at the left. Facing them at the right of center stands an officer in a fur trimmed pelisse, while a cloaked figure seen from behind waits in the foreground and grenadiers at the right hold up a mass of captured standards against the tall windows.

The caption below the image reads: "Murat présente au Directoire le traité de Cherasco et les drapeaux pris en Italie." In English: Murat presents to the Directory the treaty of Cherasco and the flags taken in Italy.

The plate comes from the first volume of Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827 by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, the press of Marcellin Jobard. Its title page describes a text written by a society of men of letters from the new documents dictated and corrected at Saint Helena by Napoleon himself, illustrated with lithographed plates after the first painters of the French school by Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877), the Belgian lithographer and painter. This volume follows Napoleon from his schooling at Brienne to the camp of Boulogne.

The armistice of Cherasco was signed on 28 April 1796 between Bonaparte and the Kingdom of Sardinia, taking Piedmont out of the war within weeks of the opening of the Italian campaign. Joachim Murat, then serving as Bonaparte's aide de camp, carried the agreement to Paris together with flags captured in the first battles of the campaign, and presented them to the Directory.

The interior, with its chandelier, draped windows and forest of standards, gives the sheet a strong sense of ceremony.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.