Napoleon at the Battle of Friedland

Horace Vernet's Napoleon at the Battle of Friedland of 1836, commissioned for the Versailles battle gallery, depicts Napoleon's June 1807 victory over the Russian army that led directly to the Treaty of Tilsit and his greatest territorial achievement. Friedland was one of Napoleon's most tactically brilliant victories, trapping the Russians against the Alle River and destroying their army. Vernet depicted the Emperor on horseback surveying the action with the calm authority that constituted the battle portrait's essential fiction — commanders rarely had this comprehensive view of engagements.

The monumental canvas uses a broad panoramic format to convey the scale of the battle. Vernet positions Napoleon calmly surveying the field while smoke, cavalry charges, and artillery fire fill the middle distance with carefully rendered military detail.