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

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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

Print

Research Area

Print

Not 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


Course History

Anthropology 3.01, Introduction to Anthropology, Charis Ford Morrison Boke 1, Summer 2023

Studio Art 27.01/28.01/74.01, Printmaking I/II/III, Josh Dannin, Summer 2024

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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