Greetings one and all, this is my first post and looking forward to joining in, so I hope someone can help me.
We are probably all familiar with Adolph Northern's picture of the Prussian attack on Plancenoit. Could anyone orientate the painting with the modern day village, I know there is little left of the original buildings but hopefully i'll be going back to Belgium in the autumn (covid allowing) and would like to stand in same area if possible.
Many thanks to all, Ian.
If I may join in, yes, I think that David is bang on with his interpretation.
Another favourite, which I think stands up a little better to such analysis, is that of Carl Roechling which shows the Prussian's pushing back the French Garde, who are in greatcoats, with the burning tower of Plancenoit church in the background.
By walking past the memorial to the Prussian soldier it is just about possible to place yourself in the same spot as the artist. Though as has been said, there is always some artistic licence involved in such works.
Well, the painting was done in 1863. This means that there will probably have been minimal use of eyewitness testimony and so we will have to trust his uniformilogy sources. These seem a little dodgy as:
1. The Prussian troops all wear the Kollet with closed collar, a style that many regiments did not actually receive until later in 1815.
2. The French are shown as Old Guard, but appear to be in Grande Tenue, when we know they were wearing greatcoats.
Most sources, including Les Carnets No6 has it as Hillier's 16 Bde, 16th Infantry. The only uniformology problem is that suppossedly their collars should have changed to yellow from red in May 1815.
Hofschroer captions it as Tipplekirsch's 5 Bde, which would make it the 25th Regiment (ex Lutzow's fei Korps). Uniformologically though that would be even more problemmatic as they were recorded as using their old uniforms.
I tend to favour the former rather than the latter.
The single damaged French cannon is also hard to place, as it would appear to have been subject to counterbattery fire. The lack of artillery casualties (which you would expect from such a catastrophic strike) seems to indicate it is artisti "scene dressing" rather than a serious attempt to tell a story.
I think Ian that one of the challenges is artistic licence. Northern is painting a battle scene not a landscape. Whilst the elements will likely be accurate representations, their placement probably had more to do with composition.
Hello Ian
I was there a few years ago and also hoped to identify that spot - it is a terrifying image I think! We unfortunately drew a blank, for while there are a few older buildings there, by far the majority were built after the battle, for obvious reasons I guess. A wander about will still give you a feel for the place though, and do go for a walk to the north of the village past the Prussian monument. This will take you behind the French right and gives interesting views towards Chapelle St Lambert and the area of the Prussian advance. You leave Plancenoit in quite a deep valley behind you.
The field of Ligny should also be on your itinerary I suggest. I never understood the battlefield until I walked it, and a few hours spent in the 'Centre General Gerard' museum will pay dividends.
Let's hope that covid will be just a memory in the autumn!
Hi Ian, welcome to the forum - please to have you here. Small piece of admin, could I ask you to edit your profile name so that your full name appears in the top left of your posts. If you click on the drop down box on the top right of the webpage next to your profile picture, and then click 'my account', you should be able to do it from there. Its something that I ask folks to do for transparency. Many thanks in advance and happy posting. Z