[French soldiers gathering around a camp fire].

Drawing,watercolour and brown ink, 24,3 x 32,2 cm, laid paper, unsigned.

Stuck under passe-partout.

A group of cavalry soldiers of the "Grande Armée" is gathering around a fire in the forest. The flames illuminate the faces of the figures and provide the scene with a brilliant glow and sense of drama. Johannes Vinkeles (1783-1823) was a Dutch artist who had moved to Paris with his father Reinier, where they made a fruitful career as painters and print designers of battle scenes and historical events. Johannes was particularly praised by his contemporaries for his rendering of horses. A second, (probably preliminary) drawing with the same composition is preserved in the collection of the BnF. Ref. F. Lugt, Inventaire général des dessins des écoles du nord, Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, Paris 1936, nr. 293.