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A FAREWELL TO NAPOLEON'S TROOPS BEFORE THEIR DEPARTURE TO RUSSIA

39 by 45.5cm., 15 1/4 by 18in.

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Fogg Art Museum, Boston

NOTE

After studying with his father, the painter and sculptor François Swebach, the young Jacques-François Swebach settled in Paris. He began exhibiting at the Salon in 1791, and soon gained a reputation for his paintings and drawings of horses and military scenes. Described by one critic as the 'Wouwerman of our time', Swebach was appointed premier peintre at the Sèvres porcelain factory, a post he held from 1802 to 1813. One of his most important projects at the Sèvres factory was the translation of the designs of Egyptian scenes by Baron Vivant Denon, made during Napoleon's campaigns in Egypt, onto two superb dessert services. One of these was presented to the Tsar of Russia, Alexander I. who subsequently summoned Swebach to Russia. Between 1815 and 1820 Swebach worked in Saint Petersburg as the chief painter of the Imperial porcelain works. However, he continued to produce small cabinet pictures of horse fairs, markets, battle and hunting scenes which were exhibited at the Salons in Paris and were acquired by a large and enthusiastic group of private collectors.