Gustave Doré

This battle scene is one of Gustave Doré's most arresting depictions of the Franco-Prussian war. The Prussians surrounded Paris during the winter of 1870-1871, defeating French troupes that organized outside the city. In 1870-1871, Gustave Doré and his mother sought refuge in Versailles, and it was here that Doré possibly witnessed this scene firsthand.
Groups of women and children are being ushered into underground barricades as a gruesome battle occurs in the distance. The barren trees suggest the crippling cold of winter while also heightening the sense of hopelessness and desperation. A thick layer of white gouache forms an eerie cloud of smoke in the background, indicating a battle just beyond the picture plane. Enemy cannons have felled two trees while wounded soldiers are carried to the barricades for protection.
In 1870, Gustave Doré wrote to London from Versailles: ". . . Our poor capital is in flames; its palaces destroyed- its finest streets, and all that made it beautiful. As I write, I have before me immense volumes of smoke rising to the heavens. In the whole history of the world, I don't think there is a parallel instance of so sanguinary a drama and of such ruin." (John Milner, “Art, War and Revolution in France, 1870-1871: Myth, Reportage and Reality.” New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000, 166). The Musée Carnavalet, Paris, owns an album containing 26 drawings by Doré chronicling the war of 1870-1871. Esther Bell, 2010