Napoleon auf dem Schlachtfeld von Eylau

In February 1807 Napoleon's army fought the Russians at Eylau in a snowstorm, and by the end something like 50,000 men lay dead or wounded on both sides. It was one of the bloodiest days of the whole Napoleonic era, and the victory, if it was one, was ghastly. To keep it from being remembered that way, the regime ran a public competition for a painting of the scene, and Gros won it against 25 other artists. What he delivered is stranger than propaganda usually allows. Napoleon crosses the frozen field on horseback, raising a hand almost in blessing, but the ground around him is packed with the dead and the maimed, mostly Russian, being tended in the snow. The Emperor approved it anyway and pinned the Legion of Honour on Gros at the ceremony.