Bonaparte's Entry into Milan, May 1796, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827

An original antique lithograph from Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered "ENTREE DANS MILAN." in open capitals above the image. Bonaparte, on a gray horse, rides with his mounted staff along a rise at the left, looking out over troops drawn up in long ranks on the plain. Beyond them run the city walls with a triumphal gateway at each end, and the domes and spires of Milan fill the skyline. In the foreground below them a soldier clasps hands with a townsman beside a couple, while a seated figure and a dog look on.

The caption below the image reads: "Le 14 mai la division Masséna se présenta aux portes de Milan; le lendemain le général Bonaparte fit son entrée solennelle dans cette capitale." In English: On 14 May Masséna's division appeared at the gates of Milan; the next day General Bonaparte made his solemn entry into that capital.

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.

After Lodi the Austrians fell back from Lombardy, and the French occupied Milan without a battle. Masséna's division reached the city on 14 May 1796 and Bonaparte made his formal entry on 15 May, while the Austrian garrison held out in the castle of Milan.

With the walls, gates and skyline of Milan stretched across the width of the sheet, the plate reads as a city view as much as a campaign scene.

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