The Militiaman's Departure

Austria created its Landwehr, a militia of citizen soldiers, in 1808, and in 1813 those men went to war against Napoleon once more. That October the allies beat him near Leipzig, in the Battle of the Nations, and the Landwehr fought there. This huge canvas, about three and a half metres wide, was painted in Vienna the same year. A militiaman in a long coat and a plumed hat takes leave of his family, holding his wife's hand while she carries their baby. The grandfather sits with his hands folded in prayer, and a young woman kneeling beside him hides her face. A boy holds back the dog, and a cat sleeps on the green stove. The signature is on the grandfather's belt, Painted by P. Krafft, Vienna 1813. In 1816 the picture was bought for the emperor's gallery at the Academy exhibition.