KOBELL, Wilhelm von (1766-1853, artist) and Heinrich MANSFELD (1785-1866, engraver)

Dartsellung der Sämmtlich K.K. Oesterreichische Infanterie [with:] Darstellung der Sämtlich K.K. Oesterreichischen Cavallerie

Vienna: Artaria & Comp, c. 1830s. Hand-coloured aquatint engravings with a few short repaired marginal tears, both plates with the small circular collector's stamp in the lower left margin of the prominent French militaria collector Bernard Franck. Sheet size: (22 3/8 x 28 inches).

An enchanting pair of large-format Viennese military costume plates, showing the infantry and cavalry of the Imperial-Royal Austrian army on parade during the Napoleonic period.

These two plates present the Austrian army in broad panoramic compositions, with officers, enlisted men, musicians, standard-bearers, and mounted troops arranged before encampments and review grounds. The infantry plate shows a busy military camp, with soldiers in varied uniforms and ranks gathered among tents, wagons, barrels, and civilians. The cavalry plate gives a more formal review, with mounted officers in the foreground and dense ranks of troops extending into the distance. Together they form a visual survey of the army's dress, hierarchy, and ceremonial presence at the height of Austria's struggle with Napoleonic France. The artist, Wilhelm von Kobell, the Mannheim-born painter, printmaker, and battle artist became closely associated with military and equestrian subjects. The engraving is by Heinrich Joseph Mansfeld, an Austrian printmaker active in Vienna. The bilingual titles, German and French, place the works within the international military-print market of the early nineteenth century, while the dedication to Archduke Charles links them directly to Austria's leading military reformer and commander of the Napoleonic Wars. The publisher, Artaria & Comp., was one of Vienna's principal art, map, and music publishing houses. The firms imprint gives these plates a strong Viennese context, and the scale, colouring, and density of military detail place them among the more ambitious costume and military review prints of the period. Provenance: Bernard Franck (1848-1924), whose small circular stamp appears on both plates, was a Paris industrialist, collector, and veteran of the Franco-Prussian War. His collection of militaria and Napoleonic material was one of the best-known French private collections in the field, and objects from it are readily identifiable by his systematic marks and labels. The Franck stamp is especially appropriate here, tying the pair to a collector deeply engaged with the military material culture of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods.

British Museum, 1872,0608.40 and 1872,0608.41; Albertina, DG40172 and DG40173; Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University.

Item #43031

Price: $4,800.00