Episode of the Russian Campaign, Nicolas Toussaint Charlet
A huge column of soldiers advances painfully through a desolate and icy landscape covered in snow, surrounded by dead and wounded comrades. Shades of gray dominate the composition. In this tragic scene, Charlet depicts the end of the Russian campaign, ordered by Napoleon, which set off in 1812 to conquer the gigantic Russian Empire. The enterprise ended in failure and the murderous retreat of the Grande Armée in winter, when more than 300,000 French soldiers died of the cold and attacks by their enemies.
