The Retreat of Napoleon’s Army from Russia in 1812

The Retreat of Napoleon’s Army from Russia in 1812

1826
Ary Scheffer
Dutch, active in France, 1795–1858
Oil on canvas
50 1/4 x 64 in. (127.6 x 162.6 cm)

This scene depicts the 1812 Battle of Berezina, the decisive defeat of the French army during its Russian campaign. An estimated twenty-two thousand French troops were killed and thirty thousand other fatalities were sustained in the frigid Russian winter, with temperatures dropping as low as –34.6°F. At center left, a woman cradles a dying soldier in her arms in a pose reminiscent of the Pietà. The painting commemorates the loyalty of General Ney, on horseback at center, who attempted to lead his men to safety. Ary Scheffer relied on eyewitness accounts of the battle in his effort to document its horrors.

2011.136.1
Yale University Art Gallery, Purchased with a gift from Richard L. Feigen, B.A. 1952, and the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund