Affaire de Chatillon, Septembre 1870 (Battle at Chatillon, September 1870), from the portfolio L'Eau-Forte en 1874
Clement-Auguste Andrieux, French, 1829 - after 1880
1870; published 1874
Etching on chine collé
Image: 5 7/8 × 9 1/16 in. (14.9 × 23 cm)
Sheet: 8 11/16 × 11 3/4 in. (22 × 29.8 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
PR.974.137
Publisher
A. Cadart, Paris, France | Alfred Cadart
Geography
Place Made: France, Europe
Period
19th century
Object Name
Research Area
On view
Inscriptions
Inscribed, in plate, lower right: affaire de CHATILLON ANDRIEUX 1870 SEPTEMBRE
Label
In 1870, fearing a shift in the balance of European powers, the French Empire declared war on the Prussian Empire. Within a year, the conflict led to French loss of territory and general devastation of northern France, culminating in the sacking of Paris in 1871. The Germans invaded the city of Châtillon, near Paris, in September of 1870, destroying the city. This print chronicles a brief moment from the ravaging: German soldiers march triumphantly down the streets, past the French dead prostrate on the ground. One man in the foreground lies at the feet of a soldier who prepares to shoot once more. Amid the rubble in the background, the sign for a wine shop comes into focus, suggesting that it is civilians and their livelihoods that are under attack. Made three years after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, the etching reflects on the horrible defeat of the city and of the nation more broadly.
From the 2023 exhibition Recording War: Images of Violence 1500 – 1900, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator of Academic Programming
Exhibition History
Recording War: Images of Violence, 1500-1900, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 23-December 9, 2023.
Provenance
Source unknown; catalogued, 1974.
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