Esquisse pour le cabinet du Préfet de l'Hôtel de Ville : La défense extérieure durant le siège de Paris en 1870

This sketch by Baudoüin depicts the external defense of Paris during the 1870 Siege — fortifications, troops, and the landscape of a besieged city — as another panel in the Hôtel de Ville decorative program. External defense evoked the military dimension of the siege: the sortie of troops, the improvised fortifications, the artillery duels with Prussian positions. Where other panels treated humanitarian response, this one addressed military resistance. Together Baudoüin's siege panels constructed a complete memory of the event, preserving the full human experience of a city under siege in paint on the walls of its government.

The compositional challenge of depicting fortifications and massed troops is resolved through atmospheric handling: the scene recedes into foggy winter distance, the human figures small against the landscape of earthworks and siege apparatus. The palette is necessarily cold and grey.