Thursday, July 14, 2016

The Attack at Dawn (1877)

Alphonse de Neuville: The Attack at Dawn

Alphonse de Neuville served as an officer in the Auxiliary Sappers and as aide-de-camp to General Callier during the Franco-Prussian War. He closely studied locations of battles and weaponry to recreate battle scenes. The Attack at Dawn is a recreation of a Prussian assault on a French village. To the left of the painting, a bugler sounds the alarm. French troops rush from the inn, their uniforms identify them as turcus or Algerian rifleman and mobiles or members of the Garde Mobile. The mountain in the background helps to identify the location of the scene as a village near the Jura Mountains, located near the Swiss border. The paintings of de Neuville attempt to glorify France's heroic resistance rather than its military defeat. [Wikipedia]

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