Denis Auguste Marie Raffet

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Denis Auguste Marie Raffet
1804-1860
Battle of Valmy. Verso: Studies of Horses
ca. 1830
Watercolor over graphite on wove paper; verso: watercolor and graphite.
10 1/4 x 12 5/8 inches (260 x 321 mm)
The Joseph F. McCrindle Collection.
2009.261

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Notes: 

Auguste Raffet became known during the July Monarchy as the "illustrateur de la Révolution." His drawings, most often enriched with watercolor, were translated into lithographs and published in deluxe large-scale editions chronicling the various battles of the Revolution (see, for example, Auguste Raffet, Musée de la Révolution. Histoire choronologique de la Révolution française, Collection de sujets dessinés par Raffet. Paris, editeur Perrotin, 1834).
While this drawing cannot be linked to one of these publications, the subject was certainly of interest to the artist. The recto features the battle of Valmy, otherwise known as the Cannonade of Valmy, which took place on 20 September 1792 in northern France. Raffet depicts the French cavalry on a mountainside, looking down at the Prussian and Austrian troops in the valley below. The bluish-gray watercolor in the background forms a large cloud of smoke that obscures the unfolding violence and bloodshed.

Inscription: 

Inscribed on verso at lower left in graphite, "549".

Provenance: 
Paul Weiss, New York, from whom purchased in 1983 by Joseph F. McCrindle, New York.
Associated names: 

McCrindle, Joseph F., former owner.

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