Battle of Valmy. Verso: Studies of Horses

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.