Vue de la Ville de Thionville.

ANON  ([c.1795])

£295.00 

Vue d'Optique with original hand-colouring, 14" x 20". Some browning and spotting, margins a little frayed with some repairs verso, overall very good. Chez J. Chereau Rue St. Jacques aux 2 Colonnes, No. 257, Paris, n.d.

Commemorates the siege of 1792 when this town on the canalized Moselle was invested for two months by an Austrian Army 20,000 strong reinforced by 16,000 emigrés including Chateaubriand. Thionville held out despite the ferocity of the artillery, the caption to this print describes how the Austrians "...firent un feu si terrible qui leur demonta toutes leurs Pieces et leur tua un grand nombre de soldats et d'Officiers..." The defiance of the Thionvillers became a by-word for revolutionary zeal, Carlyle recounts how, "The Thionvillers, carrying their insolence to epigrammatic pitch, have put a Wooden Horse of their walls, with a bundle of Hay hung from him, and this Inscription: "When I finish my hay, you will take Thionville." To such a height has the frenzy of mankind risen." The present view is taken from behind the Austrian batteries, a terrible volley is being fired and the trajectories of the cannon-balls can be seen arcing towards the towers of the town.

Stock Code: 82924

close zoom-in zoom-out close zoom