The Retreat of Napoleon’s Army from Russia in 1812

Scheffer painted "The Retreat of Napoleon's Army from Russia" in 1826, depicting one of the greatest military disasters in history. Napoleon's Grande Armée, which had entered Russia with over 600,000 men in June 1812, was reduced to fewer than 100,000 survivors by the time it crossed back into Poland that December. Scheffer's painting captures the frozen, exhausted remnants of the army straggling westward through the Russian winter.

Scheffer renders the desperate soldiers with emotional intensity and naturalistic detail, their suffering figures set against the bleak, snow-covered landscape. The cold palette and the scattered composition of struggling survivors create a powerful image of military catastrophe.