''The Siege of Kosel'' is a large oil on canvas painting completed in 1808 by the German landscape artist Wilhelm von Kobell which is now in the collection of the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, Germany. The actual incident portrayed took place on 18 March 1806 during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

, with his Bavarian allies under

Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria Maximilian I Joseph (german: Maximilian I. Joseph; 27 May 1756 – 13 October 1825) was Duke of Zweibrücken from 1795 to 1799, prince-elector of Bavaria (as Maximilian IV Joseph) from 1799 to 1806, then King of Bavaria (as Maximilian I Joseph) ...

, had successfully invaded

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

, then under the control of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

. He had left his youngest brother Jérôme Bonaparte to carry out a mopping up exercise, involving the capture of a small number of fortified towns, including Kosel. To celebrate the successful campaign, Maximilian (or otherwise Crown Prince Ludwig) later commissioned Kobell to produce a series of 12 large canvases to record the allies victorious engagements. ''The Siege of Kosel'' was the first in the series and, according to the inscription on the back of the painting, depicts the repulsing by the allies of a Prussian sortie (i.e. attempted breakout). This first canvas featured a stationary assembly of commanders, illuminated by the early morning sun, looking out over the distant town and the fighting in the shaded valley below. Later works in the series recorded actual battle scenes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siege Of Kosel 1808 paintings German paintings War paintings Collection of the Neue Pinakothek Horses in art

See also

References