Bellangé’s principal claim to fame was as a painter of battle scenes, the majority of them set in the Napoleonic era. In 1816, while studying at Gros’ studio, he met Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet, and like him began to produce litographs. Bellangé’s series in this medium included military uniforms, humorous scenes of the Grande Armée, raw recruits and worn-out veterans: he also provided illustration for Béranger’s Songs. He made his debut at the Salon in 1822, where in later years he was awarded several medals. In 184 he was made a Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur, after having scored a major triumph at the salon with The Return from Elba (Amiens, Musée Picardie). E was elevated to the rank of Officier in 1861. He carried out major commissions for Louis-Philippe in the Galerie Historique at Versailles, and was curator of the Musée de Rouen from 1837 to 1854.
Bellangé produced numerous variations on the theme of soldiers of the Grande Armée breaking their march at a tavern, inn or country cottage. At the 1822 Salon, for instance, he exhibited a Halte de militaires français, and in 1836 a Halte militaire. This drawing of 1839 follows in the same tradition.
In most of these scenes of soldiers sitting outside an inn being served by girls in country dress the building is given a name which alludes to military life under Napoleon. In a watercolor in the Musée Farbe in Montpellier, for instance, the inn is called “Au rande vou DE LA GRAN DARMEE” (“At the randay-voo of the Gran Darmy”). The rustic building in the present sheet has no name, so the author is the 1863 catalogue may well have been right in describing it as a farmhouse.
( Wiepke Loos)
