02 Works, The Art of War, Alphonse de Neuville's Les dernières cartouches/ The Last Cartridges, with footnotes

Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville  (1836–1885) 

The Last Cartridges, Prussian War in 1870, c. 1873

Oil on canvas

Bazeilles, museum of the House of the last cartridges

September 1st 1870, and French soldiers, besieged inside a house in the Ardennes' village of Bazeilles, are fighting a desperate battle against the Prussian invader. Surrounded by the enemy, they keep up the fight to the very last bullet. The following day, a few miles away in Sedan, Napoleon III was to surrender.

Alfred de Neuville, considered along with Edouard Detaille to be the top military artist of the Third Republic, seized on this famous episode to compose a tragic scene exalting the men's courage. This much-reproduced painting ranked amongst the most popular works of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It became the icon of patriotic heroism through which vanquished France might recover her wounded pride. More on this painting

After Alphonse-Marie-Adolphe de Neuville French

The Last Cartridges, from "L'Univers Illustré", June 21, 1873

Engraver Louis Paul Pierre Dumont 

Wood engraving

Sheet: 7 7/8 × 11 in. (20 × 28 cm)

The Met Fifth Avenue

Alphonse de Neuville was one of those painters who was spared the difficulties often associated with the life of an artist. Only his premature death matches the cliché. Despite his sheltered youth, de Neuville was not an artist for pacifists; after all, he was born in a period of war and himself served as an officer in the French army.

The famous battle painter was born in 1836 in Saint-Omer, the son of a rich landed nobility. The small town is located on the northeast coast of France, not far from the famous port of Calais. De Neuville received a good school education and was not at all interested in painting during his childhood and youth, but showed great enthusiasm for the many technical achievements that began to change the world in the mid-19th century . This passion is also reflected in his professional aspirations. After obtaining his high school diploma, he decided to become an engineer and attended the Lorient Naval Academy. Here de Neuville not only cultivated contact with other cadets, but he also came into contact for the first time with scientists, philosophers and artists. The young Alphonse was particularly impressed by the history and portrait painter Francois Edouard Picot , whose student he eventually became. Picot maintains contacts with Parisian salons and introduces his student to these environments. This is also how he came into contact with Eugene Delacroix , an important pioneer of Impressionism. In his Parisian studio, de Neuville continued his artistic training and was able to present his first major work, "Episode of the Crimean War", to the Parisian public a year later.

He then began working as a designer for publishing houses and illustrated works by well-known authors such as Alexandre Dumas and Jules Verne. His career as an artist was interrupted in 1870/1871 by the Franco-Prussian War, in which he participated as an officer. The experiences of the war must have had a strong influence on him and therefore determined his favorite subject. In post-war Paris, he quickly progressed to become a highly respected battle painter. He received numerous awards for his work and was first made a knight, then an officer of the Legion of Honor. His patriotic style is part of the era of moral renewal that France experienced after the lost war, even if modern criticism often accuses the artist of glorifying war. His powerful and optimistic paintings are still admired today.

The best known are the two paintings "The Last Cartridges" and "The Cemetery of Saint-Privat", whose great success he owes to his admission to the Legion of Honor. More on Alphonse de Neuville

Louis Paul Pierre Dumont was an accomplished French engraver and painter who is predominantly known for his wood engravings after eminent contemporaries including Gustave Doré. He also produced numerous woodcuts for newspapers such as L'Illustration, Le Journal Illustré and Le Voleur. He exhibited several times at the Paris Salon. More on Louis Paul Pierre Dumont 

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