Bonaparte at the Bridge of Arcole, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827

An original antique lithograph from Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered "LE PONT D'ARCOLE" in open capitals above the image. Bonaparte strides forward at the center of a timber bridge on a brick pier, gripping the staff of a large flag, while an officer beside him at the left raises his saber. Wounded men lie at his feet, and grenadiers with packs and fixed bayonets press onto the bridge behind him from the right, with mounted officers among them. Clouds of gun smoke roll over the river at the left, where the roofs of houses show above the smoke.

The caption in script below the image reads: "Bonaparte déployant le drapeau de Lodi, tente le passage du pont d'Arcole." In English: "Bonaparte, unfurling the flag of Lodi, attempts the crossing of the bridge of Arcole." No scene number or imprint is lettered on the sheet.

The book is Vie de Napoléon, issued at Brussels in 1827 by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, with a text written by a society of men of letters from the documents Napoleon dictated and corrected on Saint Helena. Its title page credits the lithographed plates, after painters of the French school, to Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877), the Belgian artist who drew them on stone. This plate is from the first volume, which covers the years from Brienne to the camp of Boulogne.

The battle of Arcole was fought over three days, 15 to 17 November 1796, in the marshes east of Verona, against the Austrian army of Alvinczi. On the first day Bonaparte took a flag and led an attempt to storm the bridge over the Alpone at Arcole under heavy fire. The attempt failed, and the Austrians were driven from the village only on the third day. The caption specifies that the flag was the one carried at Lodi in May 1796.

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