.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This picture depicts an incident from the French campaign in Northern Italy during the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1796 Napoleon Bonaparte, already a Brigadier General by the age of 24, married Joséphine de Beauharnais, the widow of a French aristocrat executed in the Revolution. He was made commander of the French army in Italy, and defeated four Austrian generals in succession, each with superior numbers, and forced Austria and its allies to make peace. This was secured by the Treaty of Campo Formio which ensured that France kept most of its conquests. In northern Italy he founded the Cisalpine Republic (later known as the Kingdom of Italy) and strengthened his position in France by sending millions of francs worth of treasure to the government.
The painting is set in the Massa-Carrara Province, in the region of Tuscany, and shows the two quite different geographic sections of the Province. The larger subdivision, the Lunigiana, occupies the upper and middle basins of the Magra River and is bounded on the north by the main range of the Apennines mountain chain. The smaller subdivision is situated between the northern Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea and is the area where the Carrara marble quarries are located, most of them them near the cities of Carrara and Massa.
In 1847 the Art Journal enthused about the picture when it was shown at the Royal Academy in the following terms:
This magnificent composition presents a view of the Carrara Mountains from that point where the river debouches into the Mediterranean. From the foreground of the picture a road leads to Carrara, and it is now taken by French troops as seen at various points from the nearest to the remotest parts of the picture, and whom we may suppose to be marching from Genoa. A flat extends from the foreground, and the mountains seem to rise somewhat abruptly; but the plain through which the river flows is elsewhere equally flat, and the mountains at a greater distance seem to rise yet more suddenly. Nothing can exceed the truth with which they are represented: their aspect here is precisely that of Nature. In the foreground an accident has occurred to a piece of artillery - one of the wheels has come off, and some confusion occurs in consequence. From this brass gun, its crippled carriage, the horses, and figures, the eye passes to a more advanced body in the water, and thence again to the main body in the remoter distance. The whole is presented under a simple daylight effect, painted with exquisite truth and feeling - for upon whatever part of the canvas the eye may rest, it discovers an earnest and studious purpose. The foreground is disposed, in colour and objective, with exquisite feeling; we find here, as usual, numerous trifling incidents which, although too insignificant to name, have such value in the work that their absence would be felt; and withal they are so unobtrusive that they discover themselves only when sought. This is the best picture which this gentleman has ever exhibited; it must have been long dwelt upon - perhaps for years; no mind could extemporize after this fashion. It may, however, be observed that one darker accent in the foreground would have shed more light and transparency throughout the whole; had the gun been black instead of copper - had one of the horses been black - it cannot be doubted that such a trifle had been of infinite value to the whole.
Various sketches for the painting are recorded, including one exhibited at the British Institution in 1845, no. 101 - The Margra, looking towards the Carrara mountains (20 x 26 in.). Another is in the York City Art Gallery and was bequeathed to the Museum in 1882 (cat. no. 165). A waterclour sketch for the picture was also recently sold at Sotheby's London, 3 April 1996, lot 176.
It has been suggested that the painting shown at the Royal Academy in 1847 was later in the collection of the Earls of Ellesmere.
Clarkson Stansfield painted another large canvas of Napoleonic subjects in The Battle of Roveredo (Royal Holloway College) which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1851 and in Paris in 1855.
The painting is set in the Massa-Carrara Province, in the region of Tuscany, and shows the two quite different geographic sections of the Province. The larger subdivision, the Lunigiana, occupies the upper and middle basins of the Magra River and is bounded on the north by the main range of the Apennines mountain chain. The smaller subdivision is situated between the northern Apuan Alps and the Tyrrhenian Sea and is the area where the Carrara marble quarries are located, most of them them near the cities of Carrara and Massa.
In 1847 the Art Journal enthused about the picture when it was shown at the Royal Academy in the following terms:
This magnificent composition presents a view of the Carrara Mountains from that point where the river debouches into the Mediterranean. From the foreground of the picture a road leads to Carrara, and it is now taken by French troops as seen at various points from the nearest to the remotest parts of the picture, and whom we may suppose to be marching from Genoa. A flat extends from the foreground, and the mountains seem to rise somewhat abruptly; but the plain through which the river flows is elsewhere equally flat, and the mountains at a greater distance seem to rise yet more suddenly. Nothing can exceed the truth with which they are represented: their aspect here is precisely that of Nature. In the foreground an accident has occurred to a piece of artillery - one of the wheels has come off, and some confusion occurs in consequence. From this brass gun, its crippled carriage, the horses, and figures, the eye passes to a more advanced body in the water, and thence again to the main body in the remoter distance. The whole is presented under a simple daylight effect, painted with exquisite truth and feeling - for upon whatever part of the canvas the eye may rest, it discovers an earnest and studious purpose. The foreground is disposed, in colour and objective, with exquisite feeling; we find here, as usual, numerous trifling incidents which, although too insignificant to name, have such value in the work that their absence would be felt; and withal they are so unobtrusive that they discover themselves only when sought. This is the best picture which this gentleman has ever exhibited; it must have been long dwelt upon - perhaps for years; no mind could extemporize after this fashion. It may, however, be observed that one darker accent in the foreground would have shed more light and transparency throughout the whole; had the gun been black instead of copper - had one of the horses been black - it cannot be doubted that such a trifle had been of infinite value to the whole.
Various sketches for the painting are recorded, including one exhibited at the British Institution in 1845, no. 101 - The Margra, looking towards the Carrara mountains (20 x 26 in.). Another is in the York City Art Gallery and was bequeathed to the Museum in 1882 (cat. no. 165). A waterclour sketch for the picture was also recently sold at Sotheby's London, 3 April 1996, lot 176.
It has been suggested that the painting shown at the Royal Academy in 1847 was later in the collection of the Earls of Ellesmere.
Clarkson Stansfield painted another large canvas of Napoleonic subjects in The Battle of Roveredo (Royal Holloway College) which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1851 and in Paris in 1855.