1825 – A. Adam – Übergang über die Düna

Title:                 Uebergang Bayr. Cavalerie über die Düna, den 24. Juli 1812
             (The Crossing of the Bavarian Cavalry over the Düna (Daugava), 24 July 1812)
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Description:

This lithograph records an episode of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812. On 24 July 1812, at Beshenkovichi, the Bavarian light cavalry serving in Prince Eugène de Beauharnais’s IV Corps forded the Düna (the Western Dvina, the Daugava, Latvia), with Napoleon himself present at the crossing.

In the foreground, a group of senior officers in bicorne hats sits on horseback on a rocky bank, one pointing across the river. To the right waits a body of Bavarian chevau-légers in their characteristic crested helmets. Beyond, long columns of horsemen wade through the broad, shallow river and climb the far bank, where a line of wooden houses of the village crowns the heights. The wide sky and open landscape convey the vast scale of the Russian campaign.

The composition follows the eyewitness work of the Munich battle painter Albrecht Adam (1786–1862), who accompanied Eugène’s headquarters through the whole campaign. For collectors from the Baltic region it is an attractive document of the Daugava, the river of Riga and Latvia, in the dramatic year of 1812.

Cartographer/Artist:      after Albrecht Adam (1786–1862)

Publisher:                            unknown

Atlas:                                    a series of German lithographs on the Russian campaign of 1812
Frame size:                          34,0 x 28,5 cm
Year:                                       1825
Technique:                           Steel engraving

Reference:                           cf. Albrecht Adam, Napoleon and his Troops at Beshenkovichi, 24th July 1812 (oil on canvas)

Condition:
Good. Clear impression with the lettered title below. The paper is toned, especially in the margins, with light foxing and a few small spots. It is framed under a cream mount in a silver-gilt frame, behind glass.

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This is an original antique map published in 1825 and NOT a modern copy or reprint