_Page_ _Introduction_ 1 _On Progress in Art_ 16 _Realism_ 24 _I_ _Napoleon_ 53 _II_ _The Burning of Moscow_ 180 _III_ _The Cossacks_ 220 _IV_ _The Grande Armée_ 227 _V_ _The Marshals_ 256 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS_ _Page_ _Vassili Verestchagin_ _Frontispiece_ _A Dispatch_ 72 _Russian Grenadiers_ 78 _At Borodino_ 92 _Looking towards Moscow_ 108 _Disillusion_ 128 _On the Way Home_ 145 _Bivouac_ 155 _Despair_ 162 _At a Council of War_ 176 _Armed Peasant_ 186 _In a Russian Church_ 197 _Ney and the Staff_ 252 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ “1812” NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA INTRODUCTION The following pages are not offered to the reader as a history of the invasion of Russia by Napoleon. They are but the statement of the basis of observation on which M. Verestchagin has founded his great series of pictures illustrative of the campaign. These pictures are now to be exhibited in this country, and the painter has naturally desired to show us from what point of view he has approached the study of his subject—one of the greatest subjects in the whole range of history—especially for a Russian artist. The point of view is—inevitably in his case—that of the Realist; and this consideration gives unity to the conception of his whole career and endeavour. He has ever painted war as it is, and therefore in its horrors, as one of its effects, though not necessarily as an effect sought in and for itself. He has tried to be “true” in all his representations of the battle-field. His work may thus be said to constitute a powerful plea in support of the Tsar’s Rescript to the Nations in favour of peace. My meaning will be best illustrated by a short sketch of M. Verestchagin and his work, as painter, as soldier, and as traveller.