Raising the Siege of Mantua, Berthier, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827

An original antique lithograph from Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered "LEVÉE DU SIÉGE DE MANTOUE." in open capitals above the image. Bonaparte, in a bicorne and sash, stands at the center pointing back to the left toward a group of officers and their horses, while the officer beside him in a long coat, hat in hand, gestures out toward the domes and towers of Mantua on the horizon. A heavy mortar and a siege gun lie on the ground at the right, and troops and wagons move across the plain below.

The caption below the image reads: "Partons, dit-il à Berthier, bientôt nous aurons repris tout ce qui est ici, et nous aurons pris tout ce qui est là, ajouta-t-il en montrant l'artillerie des remparts." In English: Let us go, he said to Berthier; soon we shall have retaken all that is here, and we shall have taken all that is there, he added, pointing to the artillery on the ramparts.

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.

At the end of July 1796, with Wurmser's Austrian army marching down to relieve Mantua, Bonaparte raised the siege and abandoned his siege train in order to concentrate his forces against the relieving columns. The decision led to the French victories at Lonato and Castiglione in early August.

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