Scene from the French Campaign of 1814

by Emile Jean Horace Vernet

Submitted by Ioli Advani

In his 1826 oil on canvas painting titled "Scene from the French Campaign of 1814", Emile Jean Horace Vernet brilliantly uses contrasting colors, light intensity and strong lines, to immerse the viewer in the intense drama unfolding in the scene before one’s eyes. The brightly lit central figure of the woman holding her child evokes strong emotions of empathy for their plight, but the bright red hues of the burning fire in the background lure the viewer’s curiosity and forces the eye to move on. Following a circular trajectory from the young woman’s arm, passing over the chaos of the fighting soldiers and panicked animals, to the burning house, where the viewer momentarily stops to take in the devastation. Following the curved line of the smoke to the darkness of the ominous background, the feeling of despair that will dominate the future of this torn family prevails. The horizon line creates depth but also urges one to complete the circle, which ends at the lifeless body of the young woman’s husband laying at her feet. So let's take a closer look to find out what the artist is telling us about the destruction of this family's life?

Vernet leaves no doubt as to who the protagonist of his composition is, by cleverly illuminating the distraught woman’s face, using smooth brushstrokes of light skin-tone colors, just as if he had positioned a stage light at the upper left side of the canvas. He highlights her anguish with the reddish tones on her nose and cheeks, a hint of recent crying, further emphasizing her suffering.  In contrast to the lit figure on the front of the stage, he deliberately leaves the left and right parts of the middle canvas in relative darkness, forcing the viewer to go closer in order to discern the details of the battling sides and of the chaos created by the fighting and the scared animals running for shelter. His minimalistic rendering of the soldiers’ faces lends anonymity, in contrast to the well-defined features of the shattered family at center stage, which generate a sense of familiarity and kinship. On the left, the bayonets of the coalition forces create an imaginary line aimed at the French forces positioned on the right, heightening the drama of the family that is caught in the middle of this crossfire. We can almost smell the gunpowder in the white churning brushstrokes of smoke surrounding the soldiers’ muskets.

The artist places strategic emphasis with his use of strong lines and bright hues against dark tones throughout the scene to create contrast and intrigue. The light color of the woman’s upper right arm and that arm’s straight lines draw our attention to her powerfully extended limb and the firm grip of her fingers around the pitchfork, showing her determination to defend what is left of her family. The woman’s protective left arm, encircling her child, keeping it close to her skirts and her highlighted hand holding her mortally wounded husband’s arm, a cavalry officer, indicated by his Legion of Honor medal pinned on his jacket and by the carbine on the ground next to him, evoke instant empathy for their predicament but also admiration for the strength of the young woman’s character. Similarly, the light tone of the child’s hand covering his ear emphasizes the child’s potential attempt to block out the noise of the surrounding battle.

Vernet plunges the burning structure at the back in rapid swirling brushstrokes of red and orange tones and curving lines of fast moving bright flames and billowing smoke, effecting the sensation of the intense heat emanating from the inferno. He repeats the five-sided form of the burning barn in the shape created by the standing woman’s extended arms, erect body and capped head, as if the artist is using this repetition to denote the transfer of the responsibility for shelter and protection of the family from the flaming structure in the background to the woman in the foreground. 

The stark bright yellowish horizon line creates a further division of the scene from the middle ground to the dark background, the latter maybe a hint of the bleak predicament of this family’s future. The placement of the large figure at the front and the smaller structure of the barn at the back adds a sense of scale and depth, gives perspective and contrast in the image.

In this military scene commissioned by the restored French Monarchy, Vernet captures the human side of war and soldiering. The historical narrative depicts the suffering caused by the 1814 invasion of France by the coalition forces of Austria, Prussia, Russia, United Kingdom, Portugal, Sweden, Spain and German States who aimed to overthrow Napoleon Bonaparte and shows the devastation left in its wake.