FRENCH SCHOOL, core00000* GROS. LUXEMBOURG MUSEUM.

DOE

THE FIELD OF EYLAU.

The French army, victorious at Preuss Eylau, February 8, 1807, had bivouacked on the field of battle. The Emperor went over the whole plain on the 9th, about noon. The earth was covered with a thick snow, over which endless traces of dead and wounded, wrecks of arms and knapsacks, marked in a melancholy manner, the spot occupied by each battalion. The Emperor stopped at every moment to question the wounded, to console and assist them as much as possible. These wretched victims were dressed in his presence. The Russians, instead of that death which they expected, found a generous conqueror ; astonished they threw themselves before him, or held out their trembling hands as a sign of gratitude.

This subject being given for the prize, twenty-five sketches were exhibited in the Grand Gallery of the Museum. M. Gros was commissioned to execute his composition on a large scale; he acquitted himself skilfully of the task, as may be

seen.

:

The general aspect of the picture is painful the beholder fancies himself present at the horrible scene delineated. The execution is easy, the colouring vigorous, the heads full of expression. The Emperor, mounted on a dun-coloured horse, is accompanied by Princes Murat and Berthier, Marshals Soult, Davoust, Bessières, and Generals Caulaincourt, Mouton, Gardanne, and Lebrun. He is stopping before a Lithuanian Chasseur, who, wounded in the knee, is being dressed by the Surgeon Persil.

This picture appeared in the exhibition of 1808, and is now in the Luxembourg; it has been engraved by Oortman. Width, 24 feet, 6 inches; height, 17 feet.