Emperor Nicolas I Reviewing the Troops near Moscow in 1826(Eugène Lami)
An artist of multiple talents, Lami was at once a painter, watercolorist (fig. 1) and illustrator. He did numerous lithographs of figures from the cavalry and of uniforms of the French army, earning him the praises of King Louis-Philippe (1773 1850) and numerous commissions. He won fame as an interior decorator for Baron James de Rothschild (1792 1868), for whom he played the role of artistic agent. Around 1850, the Baron appealed to Lami to take charge of the interior decoration of the Château de Boulogne-Billancourt, purchased in 1817 from the banker Charles Davillier (1758 1846). This collaboration was intermittent allowing Lami to participate in the project of constructing the Château de Ferrières in 1853. Indeed, the interior decoration of the Château de Ferrières is one of the rare examples of the artists decorative work: I can only praise Eugène Lami for what is truly his creation. Without him, Ferrières would not exist. Paxton had sketched out the château, Lami gave it grace and style, wrote a journalist from lIllustration in 1868.
Sometimes a painter of military history, sometimes one of elegant society in Paris under the Second Empire, the artists style reflected the trend to triumphant Romanticism of his day. During his stay in England, Lami was most certainly influenced by the British Romantic painter Richard Parkes Bonington (1802 1828). Indeed, both the latters light touch in execution as well as his technical mastery issuing from the Flemish and Venetian masters, can be found in the work of Lami.
The Musée Condé in Chantilly (Lami worked for the Duc dAumale from 1844 to 1846 fig. 2), and above all the museum of the Château de Versailles contain very beautiful masterpieces by the artist: Combat de Puerto da Miravete (Fight at Puerto da Miravete), 1824 – Fight at Claye, 1814 Bataille de Wattignies (The Battle of Wattignies), 1837 Bataille de Hondschoote (The Battle of Hondschoote), 1838 Siège dAnvers (The Siege of Anvers), 1838 Bataille de lAlma (The Battle of Alma), 1855 , fig. 3.
Fig. 1. Cavalerie (Cavalry), watercolor, 24,9 x 42,1 cm, Chantilly, Musée Condé.
Fig. 2. Henri dOrléans, duc dAumale, en tenue de vénerie (Henri dOrléans, Duc dAumale, Dressed for Hunting), circa 1845, pen, brown ink, wash, water color, gouache, 21 x 16,3 cm, Senlis, Musée de la Vénerie.
Fig. 3. Bataille de lAlma 20 septembre 1854 (The Battle of Alma 20 September 1854), oil on canvas, 130 x 225 cm, Versailles, Musée National du Château.
II. HISTORY OF THE COMMISSION
While he was with the Duc de Raguse in Russia, the Marquis de Vogüé made sketches of the military maneuvers he witnessed. Upon his return to France, he gave Lami his drawings and notebooks, and commissioned a monumental painting from him commemorating the event. Lami, who had never been to Russia and thus had not been present at the scene (he was in England at the time), still managed to reproduce the scene with the truth and rigor undoubtedly described in the notes by the Marquis de Vogüé. The groups of horsemen are skillfully positioned over the canvas. Lemoisne would say as well that this paintingrather somber in toneis however one of the best of Eugène Lami, who knew how to place his groups very intelligently, opposing the brilliant colors of their uniforms with the dark grey of the naked landscape surrounding them. Insofar as the representation of the Emperor is concerned, it is excellent: isolated in the first row, it does indeed convey the image of the rugged soldier that Nicolas I was, his leadership qualities forcing the admiration of Marmont .
Lami lived with Paul Delaroche (1797 1856) at 17 Rue des Marais-Saint-Germain (now Rue Visconti) in Paris. We also know that Paul Delaroche did a portrait of the Marquis de Vogüé as an officer of the Garde Royale (present location unknown). The introduction of Eugène Lami to the Marquis de Vogüé thus certainly took place through Delaroche, as suggested by Lemoisne: [ ] Through what stroke of luck was he put into contact with the Comte de Vogüé? It seems certain that it was through his friend Paul Delaroche; indeed, we saw at the home of the Marquis de Vogüé, a handsome portrait in pencil of his father as an officer in the Garde Royale, by Paul Delaroche .
III. HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE EXTRAORDINARY MISSION IN RUSSIA
The year 1826 marked the beginning of the Russo-Persian war. On July 16th 1826, the Persian army, led by Abbaz Mirza invaded Russia with an aim to recuperating previously lost territories. The Russians managed to successfully repel the Persian army, but the war still lasted a year and a half, with a Russian counter-attack forcing the Persians to seek peace in 1827. This then was the context of the conflict during which our subject took place. At the end of the month of February 1826, Charles X (1757 1836), successor to Louis XVIII, sent an extraordinary mission to Russia to represent him at the crowning of the Emperor Nicolas I (1796 1855) on August 4th 1826. Son of Tsar Paul I (1754 1801) and of Princess Sophia-Dorothea von Württemberg (1759 1828), Nicolas I was to become the successor to Tsar Alexander I (1777 1825).
Auguste-Frédéric-Louis Viesse de Marmont (1774 1852), at that time Duc de Raguse, was designated the missions chief, having become famous because of numerous military conquests, particularly that of Raguse, earning him the honorary title of duke of the town in 1808. He recounted:
[ ] It was in late February of 1826 that the King made up his mind to name me Extraordinary Ambassador to Russia. I made my preparations in order to represent him in a dignified manner. Considerable funds were put at my disposal. All the most distinguished members of the young set of Paris begged for the favor of accompanying me. Fifteen gentleman were furnished me by the Embassy, and among them were three Officiers Généraux. Never had an embassy been set up with more care in selection or more splendor. Everything having been put in place for a brilliant mission, I set off [ ].
Jacques-François Ancelot (1794 1854), the illustrious poet in the retinue of the Duc de Raguse, described this temporary mission for us:
The extraordinary embassy was composed as follows: MM. le Vicomte Talon, le Comte de Broglie, and Denis Damremont, Maréchaux-de-Camp; le Marquis de Castries, le Comte de Caraman, and le Marquis de Podenas, Colonels; le Comte de Damas, Squadron Chief; le Comte de Villefranche, le Comte de Caumont-La-Force, le Comte de Brézé, captains; le Marquis de Vogué, le Comte de Biron, the Vicomte de la Feronnais, Sub-Lieutenants, were Chevaliers dAmbassade; then came MM. de Komierowski, Achille de Guise, Delarue and de Saint-Léger, Aides-de-Camp to the Maréchal; and finally MM. Decroix, de Maillé and de Durat, Officiers dOrdonnance .
Having crossed Germany, stopping at Weimar and Berlin, Marmont and his embassy arrived at Saint Petersburg, where they were received at the Hermitage by the future Emperor Nicolas I. As the death of the Empress Elisabeth had delayed his crowning, Nicolas Pavlovitch Romanov, as he still called himself, invited Marmont and his suite to observe military maneuvers until the day of the coronation ceremony. It was during the review ending one of these maneuvers during the Russo-Persian conflict that Lami represented in this painting.
IV. DESCRIPTION
The catalogue from the Salon of 1827 describes for us the scene [that] takes place on the Pétrowsky Plain, near Moscow, in the presence of the Maréchal Duc de Raguse, and the Ambassadors of various powers of Europe and Asia. The Emperor himself was personally in command; Grand-Duke Constantine, in the uniform of the Polish army, is by the side of his august brother . Lemoisnes description completes that of the catalogue:
On this vast plain, the Emperor mounted on horseback on a small hillock, is watching as the troops change positions. He is wearing a cocked hat with white feathers and a dark tunic highlighted with the gold of his epaulettes and the white of his trousers; on his left is the Grand Duke Constantine; slightly further back, wearing his Cordon Bleu decoration, the Duc de Raguse, sent as extraordinary representative of France. Behind Marmont, is the Grand-Duke Michel, and beside him, Prince Frederic of Prussia. Behind, as you proceed from the right, the diplomatic corps is grouped; on the left, in a hollow, we see marching before us the Préobrajensky drummers, following Prince Galitzine on horseback, and so picturesque in their richly colored uniforms. Finally on the lower right of the painting, we see a group of young officers in their brilliant uniforms, a very colorful group lending a lively note to this part of the painting; in the foreground, mounted on a grey horse and wearing a dark blue uniform with white frogging, and a tall fur hat with red and blue plumes, is the Comte de Vogüé, young officer in the Garde Royale .
An anonymous drawing in brown ink allows us to identify and exactly situate the participants, among them the members of the Embassy (see annexes 1 and 2).
V. THE SALON OF 1827
Lami sent his painting to the Salon of 1827 with three other canvases . Le combat de Tramaced (Fight at Tramaced), Le Colonel prince de L parcourant une ligne de tirailleurs de son régiment (Colonel Prince de L Inspecting a Line of Infantrymen in his Regiment) et le Portrait du maréchal de France prince Louis de Hohenhole-Bartenstein (Portrait of the Maréchal de France, Prince Louis de Hohenhole-Bartenstein) are mentioned in the Salon catalogue (no. 625 626 and627). As for our painting, it figures in the supplement of the catalogue (no. 1493). As Lemoisne emphasizes, [ ] it is probable for this latter work that Lami was not ready for the opening of the Salon, and that he only sent it in December, or even in January 1828, when repainting was done for a third time. This would undoubtedly explain the variations in brushwork that can be observed in the canvas.
Even if this Salon generated less general interest than the precedent Parisians were more interested in the war for independence in Greece, the preparations for the elections, and the riots in Paris that followed the suppression of the Garde Nationale it nevertheless sparked lively enthusiasm, with the debate between Classicism and Romanticism provoking much discussion around the paintings on display. Lemoisne commented: [ ] the Salon of 1827 was much less interesting than the precedent. It would seem that in effect the Innovators, or better, the Romantics, as they are beginning to be called, did not manage to repeat the great effort that they made formerly; but it would however be unjust to underestimate the value of Marino Faliero by Delacroix; Jeunes filles grecques (Young Greek Girls) by Scheffer, and above all Naissance de Henri IV (Birth of Henri IV) by Eugène Dévira, as well as Saint Symphorien by Ingres; and the works by Constable and Bonington .
Despite their interest in certain leading lights of the Salon, it is a great shame that no critic showed any interest in Lamis canvases. It is very much the case that the liveliness of the artists line, his sparkling colors and the general dynamism of the work, (despite the relative immobility of the protagonists), provoked no particular enthusiasm. A remark by Eva Bouillo confirms our observations: Critical notice in 1827 ignored the works by Lami, but talked about those by Bellangé and Léopold Robert . In Annex 19, the author compiled a list of the paintings most talked about by Salon critics. Out of a corpus of twenty-eight newspapers, twenty-six mentioned the painting by Cogniet (no. 206 in the catalogue), as compared to only a single mention for the painting by Delacroix (no. 295 in the catalogue). None cited the works by Lami
Painting commissioned from Eugène Lami in 1826 by the Marquis Léonce de Vogüé, (185 1877) , after sketches drawn by the Marquis.
Marquis Charles Melchior de Vogüé (1829 1916), his son;
Marquis Louis de Vogüé (1868 1948) , his son;
Marquis Melchior de Vogüé (1893 1965) , his son;
Comte Antoine de Vogüé (1923 1998) , his son;
Having remained in the same family ever since.
Catalogue from the Salon of 1827, Paris, p. 212, no. 1493, not reproduced.
Emile Bellier de la Chavignerie and Louis Auvray, Dictionnaire général des artistes de lEcole française [
], Paris, 1882, pp. 891-892, not reproduced.
P. A. Lemoisne, Eugène Lami (18 189), Paris, 1912, pp. 26-31, painting reproduced, facing page 16 (B&W).
P. A. Lemoisne, Luvre dEugène Lami (18 189), Paris, 1914, pp. 25-26 (not reproduced).
– Salon of 1827, Paris, no. 1493 under the title: Grandes manuvres exécutées par larmée russe, à lépoque du sacre de lempereur Nicolas 1er (The scene took place on Pétrowsky Plain, near Moscow, in the presence of the Maréchal Duc de Raguse, and the Am