Le général comte de Lariboisière, commandant en chef de l'artillerie, faisant ses adieux à son fils, au matin de la bataille de la Moskowa, le 7 septembre 1812

Antoine-Jean Gros's 1814 painting of General Lariboisière bidding farewell to his son before the Battle of Borodino (1812) is a work of Napoleonic commemorative painting charged with personal tragedy: the general's son Ferdinand died in the Russian campaign. Gros was Napoleon's official battle painter, the creator of the great propaganda canvases celebrating Jaffa and Eylau; here he turns to a more intimate register of military feeling — a father's farewell that contains within it a premonition of death. The painting, now in the Musée de l'Armée, occupies the border between history painting and sentimental genre.

Gros's handling combines the grand manner he brought to official battle painting with a more intimate, emotionally focused approach. The figures are rendered with his characteristic strong chiaroscuro, the father's aging face and the young officer's youthful one in sharp contrast. The composition is tight, focusing on the embrace.