View of the French Army's Temporary Bridge to the Lobau (Nocturne with Moonlight)

In the spring and summer of 1809 the Lobau, a wooded island in the Danube just below Vienna, became a French army camp. Napoleon had bridges thrown across the river arms to tie the island to the surrounding country, and in early July his troops crossed from there to fight the Austrians at Wagram. Josef Rebell, then in his early twenties, dated this night view of one of those crossings a year later, in 1810. A long, low bridge runs over the water under a clouded moon, fires glow red through the smoke on the horizon, and a loaded wagon rolls down the sandy road past figures in the shadow of the trees. The canvas belonged to Napoleon's stepson Eugène de Beauharnais, passed through a German princely collection and a Paris auction, and the Belvedere bought it only in 2024.