The Retreat from Russia

Description Remnants of Napoleon's Grand Army retreating from Moscow in the winter of 1812-13 have bivouacked around a ruined church. The foreground in cluttered with debris and huddled figures. Discernible are grenadiers of the Garde Imperiale and members of the regular forces. A tonsured monk is praying at the base of a religious image exposed on the building's wall. In the background French soldiers ward off the attacking Cossacks. Ominously hovering overhead in the leaden skies are flocks of vultures.

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome, before 1897 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902