HESS, Peter von
(b. 1792, Düsseldorf, d. 1871, München)

Don Cossacks with French Captives

1819
Oil on panel, 39 x 50 cm
Private collection

Painted in 1819, shortly after the Napoleonic War (1799-1815), this painting depicts a point at which the Cossacks are victorious over the French. The Cossacks, a semi-nomadic people, were famous as the vanguards of exploration and conquest in all the borderlands of the Russian Empire and aided the Russians greatly in their victory over Napoleon.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.