Camp of Boulogne, the Invasion Flotilla, 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
Good
Reference
BG-14174-3-64
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
Light wear to the top left corner. Age toning, darker at the edges; handling soiling along the edges and scattered foxing in the margins. Faint pencil marks in the top left corner and a small gray mark in the lower left margin. Printed image clean.
About this sheet
An original antique lithograph from Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827, lettered "CAMP DE BOULOGNE" in open capitals above the image. On a height above the harbor, officers in bicornes confer at the right, one gesturing toward the sea. In the middle distance a column of infantry with fixed bayonets marches past, and beyond lie the harbor, a long jetty with a square tower, vessels of the flotilla and the town with its spire. At the left a tricolor flies from a tall staff over the camp huts, a helmeted cavalryman sits his horse, and a cannon lies in the right foreground.
The caption below the image reads: "Napoléon presse les préparatifs de l'expédition qui s'organize contre l'Angleterre. Sa présence accroit l'énergie et l'ardeur des troupes de terre et de mer" In English: Napoleon hastens the preparations for the expedition being organized against England. His presence increases the energy and ardor of the troops on land and at sea.
Vie de Napoléon was published at Brussels in 1827 by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, the press of Marcellin Jobard. Its title page describes a text written by a society of men of letters from new documents dictated and corrected by Napoleon at Saint Helena, with plates lithographed by the Belgian artist Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877) after the first painters of the French school. This plate comes from the first volume, which runs from Brienne to the camp of Boulogne.
From 1803 to 1805 the army destined for the invasion of England was concentrated in camps along the Channel coast around Boulogne, while a flotilla of flat-bottomed boats was built and gathered in the harbors to carry it across. Napoleon held the first distribution of the Legion of Honor to the army at Boulogne on 16 August 1804. In late August 1805, with no command of the Channel, the camps were broken up and the army marched east toward the Rhine and the campaign that ended at Austerlitz.
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.
