Since An Introduction Was Made As Well As The First Series About Napoleonic Era, I Can Continue Posting

Since an introduction was made as well as the first series about Napoleonic era, I can continue posting mostly art with my heart and mind at ease. X)

So for the past year and a half I drew a bunch of stuff with Murat! Unfortunately, some of it doesn’t look good enough but I did my best to arrange a selection of my works that I still like nowadays.

Here they are: a drawing study from the famous Canova’s bust (except for his moustache sorry Joachim I’m too weak…); cartoonish Murat with the flags of two countries which I associate with him the most; a bunch of ✨drama✨ concerning the 13th of October; small thing I made for a drawing ask in our Russian community of Napoleonic history lovers as well as teenager Joachim with his horse friend! 🐎

Best father-son relationships in the Napoleonic era, they are just 🥺🤲💗

Soooo in the next couple of days I would love to speak about how I got to the point where I am right now in the fandom! And first of all - about few historical characters who have been figuring in my drawings for almost a year and a half. :)

I guess that the most accurate way of describing my preferences would be

✨The squad of yearly 19th-century military men with huge sideburns✨

And here they are - from left to right (or should I say from top to bottom, ehem):

First and foremost, I should say couple of words about the man who had been my main inspiration for almost three year in a row - prince Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration, famous infantry general of the Russian Empire. 🇷🇺

Well… I love him with all of my heart! As a Russian who suddenly got into history of Napoleonic wars (and, actually, history in general even though it was not my cup of tea for the major part of my life) thanks to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” which I read for our literature class in high school and was completely enchanted by it I had plenty of choices with whom I could start my journey.

And I chose… Alexander I.

Yep, I find it rather logical and still appreciate the role that he had played in getting me into the Napoleonic wars shenanigans (even though now I know so much about all of his downsides and unpleasant features of his character) but in the end Bagration means much more to me. 🌹

He was a wonderful warrior with a heart of a lion, a bit too hotheaded but righteous and fair till the very end. I find it fascinating how gracefully he managed to combine his own skills concerning the art of war with the habits of Russian imperial court. Even though he didn’t manage to maintain good relationships with tzar Alexander (oops, here goes Alexander’s pride and arrogance when it came to the military affairs) because of his own sense of right and wrong and his stubbornness (which, in my opinion, was completely justified by the situation in the battlefield) and was acting rather obstinately in the begging of the War of 1812, he got the glory and honour he deserved from his fellow generals and even the enemies of the empire. His unfortunate death is a real tragedy as many sources show that he could have been saved even with the poor medical sources of the time… But oh well. What happened, happened. 😔

Long story short, I think that Bagration was quite wholesome person and I’m happy to see that nowadays he still gets much recognition! 🎉

And the next one we haaaaaave… oh my, who could it be if not the one and only Joachim Murat, maréchal de France, Roi de Naples, in all of his shining glory! 🇫🇷✨

Won’t say much about him here (because it’s far too much for this poor post already 😅) only that this man fascinates me to the bottom of my heart! It’s always such a pleasure to learn something new about his adventures and the adventures of Napoleon’s maréchaux in general. Love them all very much!

Vive la France, vive la Révolution française et vive le Premier Empire surtout!~

…Okay, but also, like, Murat’s attitude to different things and events, his flamboyancy in clothing and his overall, er, sensibility helped me a lot with some deep struggles about my own identity and I will always be grateful to him for who he was. ❤️

The last but not the least is long-forgotten (even though now I find more than enough information about his life, character and deeds) but utterly sweet Fürst Karl Philipp zu Schwarzenberg, field marshal and experienced diplomat in service of the Holly Roman and then Austrian Empire. 🇦🇹

I’m certainly going to make a specific post about how did I end up with him, that one bloody devil Metternich (definitely heard about that guy somewhere) and my overall sudden boiling passion for the austrian history which grows stronger every day so I’m DEFINITELY not going to get into details this time, I swear!

…I only want to express my frustration: I was not smart enough few years ago and now have to study German language frantically. Mein Gott, it was a love from the first sight but that’s pretty tough nonetheless. One year of express self studying has passed and I hope it’s only a beginning!

P. S.

To sum it all up, I would like to state one last question.

On a scale from one to ten how ✨cringe✨ is it to aggressively simp for someone like Metternich? Because it must have been over half of a year by now and my concern is growing. 😂

So thanks to @microcosme11 who showed a lot of interest in the incredible painting “Battle of Leipzig” by Johann Peter Kraft I’ve decided to consecrate a series of posts to the main participants of the event depicted on the canvas!

It’s simply going to be a bunch of my guesses about who is who over there. 👀

Unfortunately I’m going to illustrate my ideas with such an amount of pictures that it’s simply a necessity to divide this post into several parts…

Well, as an old Russian saying goes, “Don’t feed me bread, just let my speak a lot about 19-century men in fancy uniforms”!

Ahem.

So here comes part 1!

First of all, let’s start with the most important participants - three allied monarchs themselves. Here they are: Alexander I of Russia, Franz II of Austria and Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia. 👑

…Aaaaand I was lucky enough to find some old photos I took in the State Hermitage Museum during my last trip to Saint-Petersburg!

I guess Saint-Petersburg is at some point the second home for each and every lover of the Russian Empire. Even nowadays the city itself represents the living remains of that illustrious period in Russian history. :)

As for the paintings those epic depictions of allied monarchs are located in the Military Gallery of the Winter palace. The portrait of Franz II is also one of Kraft’s works which was presented by Kaiser himself to Alexander I when the latter decided to organise the Military Gallery (which is also dedicated to the victory of Leipzig, what a coincidence) in the 1820s while the portraits of Alexander and Friedrich were made by the German painter Franz Krüger who had been working for the Russian Imperial court for a long period of time.

All three of them look truly magnificent but it’s a little bit hard to find the right angle for a photo because they hang pretty high and are gigantic. 😅

Okay, back to the “Battle of Leipzig”~

Since monarchs were usually followed by an escort of their loyal courtiers, the exact same thing goes for the Kraft’s painting. This time for the major part it consists of different military men. I believe most of them come from the general headquarters.

There are three major figures accordingly behind Alexander, Franz and Friedrich - three chiefs-of-staff of the allied forces.

The first man in the crowd is (I’m still not entirely sure about him but it would be still logical to some extent) August Neidhardt von Gneisenau, quartermaster-general of the Silesian army and Blücher’s right-hand man.

The second one is probably (like I don’t know where his aiguillettes are but the resemblance is quite obvious) Pyotr Mikhailovich Volkonsky, chief-of-staff in the Russian army.

He became one of the Alexander’s closest friends since he was introduced to him by his father Pavel I, the emperor of Russia, when Alexander was still a grand-duke (or how we call him in Russian - цесаревич / tsesarevich ✨).

By the way, Volkonsky and his colleague Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov, a general who also went through all Napoleonic wars, were the only commanders in the Russian army who received the Grand Cross of the British Order of the Bath after all the struggles.

And here is Vorontsov as a small postcriptum. :)

Mikhail was the eldest son of Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov, a Russian diplomat who served as an ambassador in the United Kingdom for almost thirty years! That was the main reason why he knew English language as well as his mother tongue, Russian.

In the nearest troublesome future he and Wellington actually became very good friends as well! 🇷🇺🇬🇧

To be continued 🔜

Speaking about specific preferences. 🥂

Quick art with dancing marshal for @count-lero

Have not posted anything for a long time so here it is. An old one drawing.

Victor Pavlovich Kochubey, member of Alexander I Backroom Committee, minister of the Interior, chancellor of Russian Empire.