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Description: | Large-scale, snow-covered war scene, depicting the retreat of Napoleon's army from Moscow. In the centre of the composition is a group of soldiers huddled together between the frozen trunk of a tree and a broken cart; standing within the group is the subject of the painting, Marshal Ney, who wears a bicorne hat. He is forward-facing and armed, his head turned to the right and his hand touching the shoulder of a wounded soldier. The soldiers on the far side of the group fire their weapons in defence. To the left of the composition is a cart laden with figures of the wounded following a long procession of retreating soldiers, marching through the snow along a road beneath a bank covered with fir trees, protected from the rear by Marshal Ney and his group. In the left foreground, in front of the broken cart, are the frozen, naked bodies of three male figures. An indistinct, red-eyed figure huddles in the cart's shelter. The leg of a dead horse is visible in the corner, near a heap of bones and a discarded military hat.
In the right foreground is a small group of dead or dying figures huddled together, including a mother with a baby and an older son. In the background, the flat, snow-covered landscape recedes into the darkness with the many mounted figures of the enemy galloping from the right towards the line of retreating forces. Moscow burns on the right horizon.
Technique: oil on canvas
medium: oil paint
Marshal Ney Supporting the Rear Guard During the Retreat from Moscow by Adolphe Yvon, 1856, (1882.7). | Source: | Manchester City Galleries | Identifier: | mcag.emu.ecatalogue.26 | Go to resource |
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