Oil painting, 'The Battle of Fontenoy, 1745', Felix Philippoteaux, 1873

A battle scene with a row of soldiers dressed in blue and figures on horses waving their hats in the foreground, while on the opposite side in the middle distance is a long row of soldiers dressed in red with three figures on horses, under a large cloudy sky with hills in the background.

Given by F. R. Bryan

Given by F. R. Bryan, 1880 (may have formed a pair with 84-1880).

Historical significance: The present painting depicts the Battle of Fontenoy, during the Austrian Succession war, which took place on the 11th June 1745 around the villages of Fontenoy, Vezin and St Anthoine in South West (Belgium) and involved the British (King George II), Hanoverians, Austrian and Dutch against the French (Louis XV). The French were under the commandment of Marshall Saxe, the British under Duke of Cumberland and the Austrian under Marshall Konigseck.
The scene has been identified as Lord Charles Hay of the First Foot Guards challenging the Gardes Francaises in the middle of the battle. The battle was eventually won by the French and during the rest of 1745 Marshall Saxe captured Tournai and other Flemish cities. Later in the year most of the British regiments were called back to Britain following the outbreak of the Jacobite Rising in the Highlands of Scotland.
This very accurate depiction of the scene focuses on the British commanders waving their hats in the centre while the horizon line is covered with the enemy troupes. This compositional formula underlines the act of bravery of the British about to be defeated by the French. The panoramic view opening up onto the plain is characteristic of Philippoteaux's battle scenes.
Battle scenes in the 19th century draw upon a long tradition since the representation of warfare on Antique low-relief and its revival during the Renaissance, which reached its peak during the 17th and 18th centuries in Italy and the Netherlands.
Although 19th-century Realist artists developed a taste for military battles as an illustration of the Napoleonic campaign, they were more concerned with people and their sufferings. In this regard, Philippoteaux is closer to the art of Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891) who devoted himself to re-creating the past, chiefly of the Revolutionary and Empire periods with a meticulous attention to historical details.

History painting, i.e. depictions of non recurring events based on religious, classical, literary or allegorical sources, particularly developed in Italy during the Renaissance (15th-16th centuries). History painting could include religious themes, or depictions of momentous recent events, but the term was most frequently associated with Classical subject-matter. However a renewed impetus was given to religious subjects after the Council of Trent (1545-63), which stipulated new iconographical programmes. The development of art treatises, in which the compositional rules guiding the art of painting were discussed also notably, influenced the evolution of history painting. From around 1600 history painting's principal rivals: still-life, landscape and genre painting began to emerge as independent collectable genres. Furthermore, the Rococo taste for the ornamental in the early 18th century prioritised the decorative quality of history painting, so that subject matters became more entertaining than exemplary. There was a renewed interest in history painting during the Neo-Classical period after which the taste for such pictures faded towards the end of the 19th century when an innovative approach to the image was led by the Symbolists and was developed further by subsequent schools in the early 20th century.

Felix Philippoteaux (1815-1884) was born in Paris where he trained with Léon Coignet (1794-1880). He soon specialised in history and portrait paintings and started exhibiting at the Salon in 1833. He also produced battle scenes, some of them in a panorama format with the assistance of his son Paul Dominique Philippoteaux (1846-1876), who would be at the forefront of a new generation of panorama painters. Félix Philippoteaux was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1846.

This painting is a fine example of Félix Philippoteaux’ battle scenes, a genre in which he specialised with success. It shows the battle of Fontenoy during the Austrian Succession War between the British, Hanoverians, Austrian and Dutch and the French, which took place on the 11th June 1745 and more specifically Lord Charles Hay of the First Foot Guards challenging the Gardes Francaises. This very accurate representation of warfare tends to re-create the past, drawing upon 17th-century Dutch examples such as Philips Wouverman (1619-1668) and differs from the 19th-century Realist interpretation of the subject.

85-1880