Crossing the Great Saint Bernard, the Hospice, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827
€ 245
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1827
Mapmaker / artist
Jean-Baptiste Madou
Publisher
Lithographie royale de Jobard, Brussels
Technique
Lithograph
Coloring
Uncolored
Sheet size
25 × 30 cm (9.8 × 11.8 in)
Condition
Fair
Reference
BG-14174-3-54
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Age toning, darker at the edges; handling soiling along the edges and scattered foxing in the margins, with a cluster in the top right margin. Several pale brown stains in the right margin and a small brown mark at the right edge. Printed image clean.
About this sheet
An original antique lithograph from Jean-Baptiste Madou's Vie de Napoléon, printed at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered "PASSAGE DU MONT S.t BERNARD" in open capitals above the image. The hospice buildings stand in the snow on the saddle of the pass between white peaks, with a long column of troops climbing toward them. At the left soldiers haul on a rope through the snow, and in the middle ground hooded monks carry baskets of bread among the men. Bonaparte stands on foot at the center right in a long coat, pointing, with officers behind him, one turbaned.
The caption below the image reads: "A pied au milieu des troupes, dans les neiges des alpes comme dans les sables de Syrie, Bonaparte allégeait la fatigue du soldat en la partageant, des vivres leur sont distribués par les Cénobites qui desservent l'hospice de S.t Bernard." In English: "On foot among the troops, in the snows of the Alps as in the sands of Syria, Bonaparte lightened the soldier's fatigue by sharing it; food is distributed to them by the monks who serve the hospice of Saint Bernard."
Vie de Napoléon was published at Brussels in 1827 by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, éditeur propriétaire. Its title page describes a text written by a society of men of letters from new documents dictated and corrected by Napoleon himself on Saint Helena, with plates lithographed by Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877) after the first painters of the French school. This plate belongs to the first volume.
In May 1800 the Army of the Reserve crossed the Alps from the Swiss Valais into the Aosta valley by the Great Saint Bernard pass, to fall on the rear of the Austrian army in Italy. The guns were dragged over the snow, and the Augustinian canons of the hospice on the pass gave food and wine to the passing troops. Bonaparte himself crossed on 20 May, and within a month the campaign had ended in the victory of Marengo.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
