Siege of Acre, Napoleon Turns Back, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827

An original antique lithograph from Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827, lettered "SIÈGE DE S.T JEAN D'ACRE" in open capitals above the image. Napoleon stands at the center on a mound of rubble below the breached walls of Acre, in conversation with two officers, one of whom holds a paper. A turbaned figure sits beside them over a fallen man. Smoke rolls over the ruined masonry at the upper right, where fighting continues, and ships lie offshore at the far left. At the left an officer in a bicorne raises his sword beside a flag and a tent, with grenadiers massed below; at the right an officer raises his sword before drummers and soldiers with packs. The dead and wounded lie across the foreground.

The script caption below the image reads: "Bonap.te se vit contraint de renoncer à entrer dans Acre, après des efforts et des sacrifices inouïs." In English: Bonaparte found himself forced to give up entering Acre, after unheard of efforts and sacrifices. No scene number or printer's line is lettered on this sheet.

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, which the title page names as publisher and owner. The title page describes a text written by a society of men of letters from new documents dictated and corrected by Napoleon himself at Saint Helena, and plates lithographed by Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877) after the first painters of the French school.

The French laid siege to Acre on 19 March 1799. The town was held by Djezzar Pasha, supported from the sea by a British squadron under Sir Sidney Smith, which had captured the French siege guns on their way by sea. Repeated assaults failed, plague spread in the camp, and Bonaparte lifted the siege on 20 May 1799 and led the army back to Egypt.

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