 |
| (Source) |
Anyhoo, John Blackshoe made a comment the other day that I should just post cool paintings and let you, the readers, interpret them. Beans seemed a bit troubled by that, so of course, I decided to do just that.
Today's painting is actually part of a larger painting which is contained in that round building in the opening photo. There is a lot going on in this painting fragment (you should see the whole thing) and it reminds me of a time when I could just hop in the car and in less than two hours be standing on the field where Napoléon lost his last gasp effort to remain on the throne of France. Which The Missus Herself claims we went to "every damned year we lived in Germany." Well, not really, she didn't go on three of the trips, but yes, I went every year. Sometimes twice.
Looking back on it, there is so much that I missed. So, someday I need to go back. Not sure if The Missus Herself will go, but ya never know.
One last thing before we get to the painting, I have been to the top of the "Lion's Mound" (la Butte du Lion, en français) and it's quite a climb, doubt I could make it these days (what with me rapidly approaching my dotage). I like the view from the top but am annoyed that they destroyed one of the most interesting features of the field to build it. (The famous "sunken lane" being the most cited feature. It wasn't as significant a "ditch" as Victor Hugo made out, but it did annoy the French cavalry trying to cross it. We'll never know, as it's long gone.)
Anyhoo, the painting, study it carefully then regale us all with your thoughts, pithy comments, and observations in the comments below.
.jpg) |
| (Source) |
.jpg){kind=link}
Wonderful, and the painting makes me think that we are way overdue for another trip to Gettysburg and seeing the Cyclorama there.
ReplyDeleteAnd I wish that I had done more sightseeing, on my all expenses paid Med cruises.
I have yet to visit that area. I need to do so soon!
DeleteIf contemplating Gettysburg, be aware that they are doing some construction work in the area of Little Round Top, so check to see if that is finished before you go. Otherwise, you will miss one of he key sites, and undoubtedly this will cause major problems iwth the detours.
DeleteJB
Yes, I'm aware of that construction. Trip won't be this year at any rate.
DeleteSo close and yet so far.
ReplyDeleteThe Duke called it a "near run thing."
DeleteThis looks like a lot going on. As my gap in Napoleonic history is large, were they really that close to Wellington, or is this just an artist's imagination?
ReplyDeleteI tried to make good use of my time when I was in the Near Abroad, but I always feel like I could have done more.
The Duke had to take shelter with friendly infantry squares a number of times during the campaign. So they did get close.
DeleteAh, The Highlanders. Pulling lousy assignments since 843 A.D.
Delete'Tis our lot.
DeleteCrusty Old TV Tech here. First impresson, lots of Red, White, and Blue, lots of color, like an Impressionist painting. Then, the contrast between the chaotic, violent, colorful scene and the muted gray tones at the bottom, with the almost spectral dead horse and soldier. And the generals in the middle, sitting on their horses and talking, as generals will. Only thing missing there is an orderly with tea/coffee. I don't know why, but that painting puts me in mind of the US Revolutionary War era. Maybe it's the colors.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first of your paintings that does not talk to me about hanging on the wall of a British Army regiment somewhere.
There is an antenna atop the round radio shack in the first picture, very nice Ground Radio building.
On my Belgian TDY, every time we passed that monument on the way south from Bruxelles, some GI wag in the team had to say "Why does that sign say Lion's Butt?" :-)
Heh, the lion's butt, very GI.
DeleteThat white smoke is something else again. The first time home from a protracted black powder shooting day, my missus refused my attempt to kiss her. Seems when you blow down the barrel to be sure the embers are out before the reload, you get a nice black ring on your lips... 40X. That ring is the soot from the grease patch, the burned charcoal, nitre and sulfur of the powder and whatever the cap added to the mix. I must've shot 40 rounds that day. I didn't mind eau de sulfured eggs in the least. She near gagged when I got close. Those men positively reeked of it. Doubtless.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, do you know the difference between parfum, eau de parfum, eau de toilette, and eau fraiche?? ;)
When we went to the reenactment there in 1995 the field was quickly obscured by the smoke. As to the smell of burnt black powder, 'tis perfume to me. (Not so much for the ladies!)
DeleteAs to fragrances, I had to look that up but parfum is the most concentrated and lasts longer on the skin, whereas eau fraiche is the least concentrated and only lasts one to two hours. The others have varying concentrations, your list is heaviest to lightest.
Now there's a thing I learned this day, and thanks for that! (I feel more qualified to comment on perfumes now.)
Crusty Old TV Tech again. Eau de Parfum is what the Base Commander sprinkles around Crusty when the beans get too fragrant. Eau de Toilette is what the cat drinks when she gets into the latrine. Eau Fraiche is what you use on Napoleons when you run out of Creme Fraische. See there STxAR, I have Culture (like cheese, as I am told)!
DeleteWe went to the 145th anniversary of Gettysburg. You know the crisp, detailed paintings of battles with smoke billowing out from the infantry like Rolls of cotton? Yeah, you get 300 men firing at once in high humidity and it really does look like that.
DeleteOn the 3rd day after our opening cannonade, by file from the right, five second interval, the field was shrouded with a moderate fog of smoke. Then the infantry came through and added those rolling billows.
An aside...on the way there from California I got to thinking about some of the minor logistics of the reenactment when we were somewhere in Nebraska (flat and straight, the mind wanders). I had just under 100 pounds of powder for the gun we were towing. There were going to be another 100 or so guns. Figure each of those had at least 50 pounds with them, all rolled in foil cartouches. Add in 20,000 infantry with at least 2 pounds of powder each. I came up with a minimum of about 45,000 pounds of powder, and likely more towards 50,000 to 55,000 pounds of smoky goodness.
COTT - You know your fragrances. 😎
DeleteJoe - And that's a lot of powder! Er, smoky goodness.
DeleteShooting black powder creates fouling. And it is additive. After 20 shots... yeah, most didn't shoot 20 shots in one day. You can tell it's a bad day when you're forced to shoot more than 20. That's a lot of fouling, and it all has to be scraped and scrubbed and washed out.
DeleteBleh.
All that smoke, all the burning black powder flying out, all the dust, all the blood and vaporized flesh, one could get quite dirty.
Did you know that you can clean your barrel out with urine? (DAMHIK)
DeleteWe had studied Waterloo at SAMS for an extended period of time. It wasn't until we actually visited the battlefield that all became clear. I'm not sure if It was there I saw the Sunken Lane or one of the Civil War Battle Fields we visited. But I remember that upon seeing it, I understood the term "Key Terrain".
ReplyDeleteYes, it is a very long way to the top. But the Infantry guys in my Staff Group were not going to be able to give me grief about not making it. Ant they couldn't. Nor was I the last in the group to the top either.
Not sure that is still a capability I have though.
Those steps are pretty steep, a lot of 'em too. As a callow youth, while visiting NYC, my classmates and I climbed the Statue of Liberty. Also a lot of steps, also something I wouldn't (couldn't?) do now.
DeleteOne gun, broken rammer, no limber. Must have retreated into the square
ReplyDeleteThe artillerymen were allegedly told to take one wheel off and roll it with them back to the squares they sheltered in. I don't believe that would be either possible or likely with a crap-ton of cavalry bearing down. I think the stories I've read of that were written by someone who (a) wasn't there, and never been on a battlefield, and (b) figured that something like that would be plausible.
DeleteMuch has also been made of the French cavalrymen not "spiking" the guns, "just a handful of nails" some writers have opined, "would have disabled a lot of Wellington's artillery." Sure but when your blood is up (and the cavalrymen were definitely focused on the task at hand) things like that don't come to mind. The French cavalry did have pioneers (one is visible in the painting, about to get potted by a British horse artilleryman) who should have been tasked with such a thing.
But the French army that went into Belgium in 1815 was a pick-up team, all-stars to be sure, but hadn't worked together before. Reading Andrew W. Field's series on the campaign has been an eye-opener, many things I knew, but had never connected the dots on, and many things I didn't now. Superb books if you have the interest.
Made it to the Lion Monument near Waterloo in the early 80's. Friend had a rented home where you could look out the front door and see the monument. In the evenings we'd wander the small roads through the cultivated fields which appeared to me to milo or wheat (being from SE Texas originally) I had no idea of what either really looked like....but rice...we readily recognize rice. Anyway, the friend’s wife was an interesting sort and she said walking through those fields she could hear voices of those who had departed this earth during or as a result of the battle. One day we heard shooting around the monument, decided to stop on the way to eat that afternoon and discovered there was a re enactment that had taken place earlier. At the time there was a pub near the monument and those participating in the event were dressed in various uniforms and well lubricated. Took pictures of us with them (who knows where those pictures are now) and one noticed I was wearing cowboy boots, that started another round of drinking with some of them shouting "Dallas" & J.R. Needless to say we had planned an early dinner which never took place. The Flemish and Walloons are well versed in consuming alcohol.
ReplyDeleteCletus Valvecore
Now that sounds like a great time.
DeleteAs to the field itself, I truly believe it is haunted by those who fell there.
Being mostly ignorant about all things Napoleonic, two things stand out for me.
ReplyDeleteHorses were a major factor in the military of that era, and suffered grievous losses, with no understanding of why they were flogged nearly to death to move their burdens, nor why men were determined to kill them, nor what exactly was taking place around them, and little to comfort them except perhaps a soldier who had tenderly cared for them until this point. Poor beasts. At least eight are down in this painting alone.
At first glance I wondered why the charging equestrians were all wearing their backpacks. But then it dawned on me that the light colored objects on their back were actually metal "cuirassiers", a vestigial form of chest and back armor. I recognized the term from an antiquarian or artifact level only. So, shamed by my ignorance about the topic, (and inability to spell Frog words in general) I went to WIkipedia and learned a whole lot more about cuirassiers and the Cuirassiers or heavy cavalry who wore them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuirassier
If I learn any more, my head will hurt.
John Blackshoe
The armor was effective against blade and bayonet, and against lance. Somewhat against pistol at close range. Against musket fire from long range. Besides the cuirasse there was the padded jacket underneath, all parts of the armor system. Sucks up shock from being jarred quite well.
DeleteIt was not antiquated nor ineffective. Same with the helmet.
Just because firearms appeared did not mean armor was stupid. A good armor of the time could defeat a good firearm of the time. Constant battle between defense and offense.
JB - Yes, the cuirassiers were the crème de la crème of the French cavalry. Big men on big horses, their shock value was immense.
DeleteTheir armor was, as Beans says, effective up to a point. I saw a cuirass at Waterloo which had been pierced by a solid shot. Wasn't good against cannon fire, that's for sure.
They are the reason the modern Household cavalry in the UK wear the cuirass on parade.
Beans - The eternal race, offense versus defense. That will probably continue until the planet is a charred cinder.
DeleteI visited Waterloo on a day trip with my youngest son's school. We had an Aussie parent with us who found it difficult to understand that you could get on a coach at 5am and travel through three countries by 10am. What the visit brought home was how condensed the battlefield was, then you think how many people were on the battlefield and try to imagine the slaughter. It's n wonder Belgium was called 'The Cockpit of Europe'.
ReplyDeleteRetired
It's one of the things many Europeans don't get about wide-open spaces like Australia or the US. "Why don't you ride a bike? Why don't you take a train? Why don't you just walk? Why own a car?" Well, if I want to go to a nearby town, that's 20 minutes by a car. To get from one end of my state to the other is 13 hours without pit stops if one maintains decent highway speed. And we have as much rail as many small European countries (and have just added double track on the east coast railroad, the Florida East Coast (FEC) and made a new line from Cocoa to Orlando.) When was the last time Europeans added rail lines?
DeleteAnd that's in Florida, which is populated. Go to a lot of western states and towns are measured by being half a day away from wherever you are.
Europeans just don't get us.
Retired - They say that the ground was soft underfoot for years because of all the corpses buried there, man and animal.
DeleteBeans - Rhode Islanders think the same way. The state is so small that they can't fathom having to drive anywhere in over 30 minutes.
DeleteOne a geology student and I drove from GFND to Winniford MT (14 hours). She had been born in Holland, as a child her mother moved to NYC, then to Mpls MN. To her, GF was a small town. About 30 miles out she said, "There's nothing out here". To myself, I said "You haven't seen NOTHING yet". I have a picture of her sitting on a bench at a gas station in Beulah ND apparently suffering from acute cultural shock with a look of "What did I get myself into"? Then we crossed into Montana.
DeleteHaving been to both the Netherlands and ND, I get that.
DeleteWhen was the last time Europeans added trainlines? . The French TGV lines have expanded West to Bordeaux and are going down the west coast to Spain and the high speed train network is expanding across Europe. In all honesty it's a viable alternative to flying when you take into account airport delays. I think the main problem is that any new train line has to go through such a protracted planning process that it takes years to get things done. In the UK we are reopening train lines closed in the 60's where the track bed still exists.
DeleteSarge: I saw some figures that estimated that in Flanders owing to all the battles that had taken place it was about one body per square meter.
Retired
It's very expensive real estate, paid for in blood many times over.
DeleteSoooo close. So very close. Good thing the French didn't have dedicated riflemen (firing rifles, not muskets) within a hundred yards of The Duke and his command staff. (Something that both the American Colonists and the English used during the American Revolution.)
ReplyDeleteThe 95th Rifles and a couple of King's German Legion units were there on the British side, equipped with the Baker rifle. A useful tool for skirmishing but it took longer to load than a musket and many generals felt that rifle-equipped units would not be of much use. Kinda reminds me of modern generals.
DeleteOddly enough, the French skirmishers were very good with their smoothbore muskets and proved deadly to many an enemy officer. Imagine if they had had rifles!
Love the painting, but I'm having a helluva time finding Waldo!
ReplyDeleteLook next to the cannon on the left. He's getting sabered.
DeleteOk, so I would have expected more smoke due to the black powder, and much more mud and blood. I see lots of green grass, and an awful lot of people/bodies and horses, but no disturbed turf, or not as much as I would expect given the horses and foot soldiers. And not much if any blood. I'm looking at the bodies, and while I see one what appears to be cannon shot hole in the armor, I see very little blood. On any one or any thing. So, I guess I would expect more general messiness. More of why are they laying down?...
ReplyDeleteCan you tell I have been watching trauma videos tonight??
Suz .
Good eye Suz. Paintings never capture the reality of battle. You're right on all counts.
Delete