Louis-François, Baron Lejeune
Encyclopedia
Louis-François, Baron Lejeune (3 February 1775, Strasbourg
- 29 February 1848) was a French
general
, painter
, and lithographer. His memoirs have frequently been republished and his name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe
.
, alongside Jean-Victor Bertin
, but left the studio to volunteer in the Compagnie des arts de Paris
in 1792. He received his baptism of fire in the battle of Valmy
later that year. He became a sergeant in the 1st Arsenal battalion and in 1793 moved to the artillery at La Fère
, assisting in the sieges of Landrecies
, Le Quesnoy
and Valenciennes
. At Valenciennes he became aide-de-camp to general Jacob then, as a lieutenant on attachment to the engineers, took part in the 1794 Holland campaign and the 1795 campaign.
Called to the depot in 1798, he succeeded brilliantly in his exams and was made a captain on attachment to the engineers. He became aide-de-camp to marshal Berthier in 1800, a post he retained until 1812 and in which he took an active part in practically all of the Napoleonic campaigns
. He was wounded and captured in Spain
. He was promoted to full captain after and chef de bataillon after , also become a knight of the Légion d'honneur
and a colonel at the Siege of Saragossa
.
The German campaign of 1806 brought him to Munich
, where he visited the workshop of Alois Senefelder
, the inventor of lithography
. Lejeune was fascinated by the possibilities of the new method and whilst there he made the drawing on stone of his famous Cossack
(printed by C. and ~f. Senefelder, 1806). Whilst he was taking his dinner, and with his horses harnessed and waiting to take him back to Paris, one hundred proofs were printed, one of which he subsequently submitted to Napoleon. The introduction of lithography into France was greatly due to the efforts of Lejeune.
In 1812, during the French invasion of Russia, he was made général de brigade and chief of staff to Davout
. Frostbitten on the face, Lejeune left his post during the retreat from Russia and was arrested on the orders of Napoleon
. Freed in March 1813, Lejeune was then sent to the Illyrian provinces, before rejoining the army under the orders of marshal Oudinot, becoming his chief of staff. During the Saxony campaign, Lejeune was present at the Battle of Lutzen (1813)
, the crossing of the River Spree and at . He was made an officer of the Légion d'honneur and a commander of the Order of Maximilian of Bavaria. At the battle of Hoyersverda, when Bülow's corps wiped out the 12th corps formed up in square on the plain, Lejeune (at risk of being kidnapped) ventured into the enemy lines with one battalion, general Wolf's cavalry and six 12 pounder guns. He thus broke the whole of the Prussian artillery and saved marshal Oudinot and his army. Wounded several times and lastly at , he was authorised to leave the army in November 1813 after more than 20 years' service. After his departure from the army, he devoted himself to painting.
After an initial grant in Hanover
in 1808, and a second in Westphalia
in 1810, he was made a baron d'Empire in 1810. Already a member of the cross of the Order of Leopold
, Lejeune was made a knight of St Louis by Louis XVIII and in 1823 a commander of the Légion d'honneur. He returned to the army (now under the Bourbons
) from 1818 to 1824, becoming commander of Haute-Garonne
in 1831. On 2 September 1821 he married Louise Clary, sister of general Marius Clary and niece of Désirée Clary
, queen of Sweden by her marriage with Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. In 1824 the king of Sweden conferred on Lejeune the grand-cross of the Order of the Sword
. In 1837 he became director of the École des beaux-arts et de l’industrie in Toulouse
, a city of which he became mayor in 1841 and in which he died of a heart attack aged 73.
Lejeune's name has been inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe
in Paris (19th Column).
He produced an important series of battle-pictures based on his experiences. He had kept his paintbrushes with him on the battlefield and the popularity he enjoyed was due to the truth and vigour of his work, which was generally executed from sketches and studies made on the battlefield. When his battle-pictures were shown at the Egyptian Hall
in London
, a rail had to be put up to protect them from the eager crowds of sightseers. He is best known for his paintings of the battle of Guirando, which appeared in 1819 to enormous success, and of the battle of Borodino
, his masterwork. Many of his battle-pictures were engraved by Coiny and Bovinet. He also produced several studies of uniforms in the French Imperial Army, such as those of the lancers of Berg
under Murat
and of Berthier's aides-de-camp.
Among his chief works are The Entry of Charles X. into Paris, 6 June 1825 at Versailles; Episode of the Prussian War, October 1807 at Douai Museum; Marengo (1801); Lodi, Thabor, Aboukir (1804); The Pyramids (1806); Passage of the Rhine in 1795 (1824), and Moskawa (??).
Lejeune is a main character.
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...
- 29 February 1848) was a French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
general
General
A general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
, painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, and lithographer. His memoirs have frequently been republished and his name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
.
Life
He studied painting in the studio of Pierre-Henri de ValenciennesPierre-Henri de Valenciennes
Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes was a French painter.Valenciennes worked in Rome from 1778 to 1782, where he made a number of landscape studies directly from nature, sometimes painting the same set of trees or house at different times of day...
, alongside Jean-Victor Bertin
Jean-Victor Bertin
Jean-Victor Bertin was a French painter of historical landscapes, inspired by Italy and known for the minute detail of his classical style.-Life:...
, but left the studio to volunteer in the Compagnie des arts de Paris
Compagnie des arts de Paris
The Compagnie des arts de Paris was a military unit of the French Revolutionary Wars. It was formed on 6 September 1792 in the Louvre section and was made up of students of Letters and Sciences, particularly from the école de Droit and écoles des Beaux-Arts...
in 1792. He received his baptism of fire in the battle of Valmy
Battle of Valmy
The Battle of Valmy was the first major victory by the army of France during the French Revolution. The action took place on 20 September 1792 as Prussian troops commanded by the Duke of Brunswick attempted to march on Paris...
later that year. He became a sergeant in the 1st Arsenal battalion and in 1793 moved to the artillery at La Fère
La Fère
La Fère is a commune in the Aisne department in Picardy in France.-Population:-References:*...
, assisting in the sieges of Landrecies
Landrecies
Landrecies is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It is the site of a skirmish between the British I Corps under Douglas Haig and the German Fifth Army on 25 August 1914.-Heraldry:-People:...
, Le Quesnoy
Le Quesnoy
Le Quesnoy is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.Le Quesnoy's inhabitants are known as Quercitains.- Economy :The town of Le Quesnoy has somehow missed much of the Industrial Revolution. Unlike the neighboring towns of Valenciennes or Maubeuge, iron/steel works did not take hold...
and Valenciennes
Valenciennes
Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies on the Scheldt river. Although the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded...
. At Valenciennes he became aide-de-camp to general Jacob then, as a lieutenant on attachment to the engineers, took part in the 1794 Holland campaign and the 1795 campaign.
Called to the depot in 1798, he succeeded brilliantly in his exams and was made a captain on attachment to the engineers. He became aide-de-camp to marshal Berthier in 1800, a post he retained until 1812 and in which he took an active part in practically all of the Napoleonic campaigns
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
. He was wounded and captured in Spain
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
. He was promoted to full captain after and chef de bataillon after , also become a knight of the Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
and a colonel at the Siege of Saragossa
Siege of Saragossa
Siege of Saragossa may refer to:*Siege of Saragossa , in which the city's inhabitants resisted the French during the Peninsular War*Siege of Saragossa , in which the city fell to the French...
.
The German campaign of 1806 brought him to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, where he visited the workshop of Alois Senefelder
Alois Senefelder
Johann Alois Senefelder was a German actor and playwright who invented the printing technique of lithography in 1796.-Actor, playwright:...
, the inventor of lithography
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
. Lejeune was fascinated by the possibilities of the new method and whilst there he made the drawing on stone of his famous Cossack
Cossack
Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
(printed by C. and ~f. Senefelder, 1806). Whilst he was taking his dinner, and with his horses harnessed and waiting to take him back to Paris, one hundred proofs were printed, one of which he subsequently submitted to Napoleon. The introduction of lithography into France was greatly due to the efforts of Lejeune.
In 1812, during the French invasion of Russia, he was made général de brigade and chief of staff to Davout
Louis Nicolas Davout
Louis-Nicolas d'Avout , better known as Davout, 1st Duke of Auerstaedt, 1st Prince of Eckmühl, was a Marshal of France during the Napoleonic Era. His prodigious talent for war along with his reputation as a stern disciplinarian, earned him the title "The Iron Marshal"...
. Frostbitten on the face, Lejeune left his post during the retreat from Russia and was arrested on the orders of Napoleon
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
. Freed in March 1813, Lejeune was then sent to the Illyrian provinces, before rejoining the army under the orders of marshal Oudinot, becoming his chief of staff. During the Saxony campaign, Lejeune was present at the Battle of Lutzen (1813)
Battle of Lützen (1813)
In the Battle of Lützen , Napoleon I of France lured a combined Prussian and Russian force into a trap, halting the advances of the Sixth Coalition after his devastating losses in Russia. The Russian commander, Prince Peter Wittgenstein, attempting to undo Napoleon's capture of Leipzig, attacked...
, the crossing of the River Spree and at . He was made an officer of the Légion d'honneur and a commander of the Order of Maximilian of Bavaria. At the battle of Hoyersverda, when Bülow's corps wiped out the 12th corps formed up in square on the plain, Lejeune (at risk of being kidnapped) ventured into the enemy lines with one battalion, general Wolf's cavalry and six 12 pounder guns. He thus broke the whole of the Prussian artillery and saved marshal Oudinot and his army. Wounded several times and lastly at , he was authorised to leave the army in November 1813 after more than 20 years' service. After his departure from the army, he devoted himself to painting.
After an initial grant in Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
in 1808, and a second in Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
in 1810, he was made a baron d'Empire in 1810. Already a member of the cross of the Order of Leopold
Order of Leopold (Austria)
The Imperial Austrian Order of Leopold was founded by Franz I of Austria on 8 January 1808. The order's statutes stipulated only three grades: Grand Cross, Commander and Knight. During the war, in common with the other Austro-Hungarian decorations Crossed Swords were instituted to reward bravery in...
, Lejeune was made a knight of St Louis by Louis XVIII and in 1823 a commander of the Légion d'honneur. He returned to the army (now under the Bourbons
Bourbon Restoration
The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...
) from 1818 to 1824, becoming commander of Haute-Garonne
Haute-Garonne
Haute-Garonne is a department in the southwest of France named after the Garonne river. Its main city is Toulouse.-History:Haute-Garonne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc.The...
in 1831. On 2 September 1821 he married Louise Clary, sister of general Marius Clary and niece of Désirée Clary
Désirée Clary
Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary , one-time fiancée of Napoleon Bonaparte, was a Frenchwoman who became Queen of Sweden and Norway as the consort of King Charles XIV John, a former French General. She officially changed her name there to Desideria, a Latin version of her original name...
, queen of Sweden by her marriage with Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. In 1824 the king of Sweden conferred on Lejeune the grand-cross of the Order of the Sword
Order of the Sword
The Order of the Sword is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I of Sweden on February 23, 1748, together with the Order of the Seraphim and the Order of the Polar Star.Awarded to officers, and originally intended as an award for bravery and particularly long or useful service, it...
. In 1837 he became director of the École des beaux-arts et de l’industrie in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, a city of which he became mayor in 1841 and in which he died of a heart attack aged 73.
Honours and awards
- 1808: Knight of the Legion of Honour (France)
- 1810: Order of LeopoldOrder of Leopold (Austria)The Imperial Austrian Order of Leopold was founded by Franz I of Austria on 8 January 1808. The order's statutes stipulated only three grades: Grand Cross, Commander and Knight. During the war, in common with the other Austro-Hungarian decorations Crossed Swords were instituted to reward bravery in...
(Austrian Empire) - 1813: Officer of the Legion of Honour
- 1823: Commander of the Legion of Honour
- 1824: Grand Cross of the Order of the SwordOrder of the SwordThe Order of the Sword is a Swedish order of chivalry created by King Frederick I of Sweden on February 23, 1748, together with the Order of the Seraphim and the Order of the Polar Star.Awarded to officers, and originally intended as an award for bravery and particularly long or useful service, it...
(Sweden) - Knight of the Order of Saint LouisOrder of Saint LouisThe Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis was a military Order of Chivalry founded on 5 April 1693 by Louis XIV and named after Saint Louis . It was intended as a reward for exceptional officers, and is notable as the first decoration that could be granted to non-nobles...
(France)
Lejeune's name has been inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe
Arc de Triomphe
-The design:The astylar design is by Jean Chalgrin , in the Neoclassical version of ancient Roman architecture . Major academic sculptors of France are represented in the sculpture of the Arc de Triomphe: Jean-Pierre Cortot; François Rude; Antoine Étex; James Pradier and Philippe Joseph Henri Lemaire...
in Paris (19th Column).
Works
Egyptian Hall
For the Glasgow building see The Egyptian Halls.The Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London, was an Exhibition hall built in the ancient Egyptian style in 1812, to the designs of Peter Frederick Robinson.-History:...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, a rail had to be put up to protect them from the eager crowds of sightseers. He is best known for his paintings of the battle of Guirando, which appeared in 1819 to enormous success, and of the battle of Borodino
Battle of Borodino
The Battle of Borodino , fought on September 7, 1812, was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia and all Napoleonic Wars, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties...
, his masterwork. Many of his battle-pictures were engraved by Coiny and Bovinet. He also produced several studies of uniforms in the French Imperial Army, such as those of the lancers of Berg
Grand Duchy of Berg
The Grand Duchy of Berg was established by Napoleon Bonaparte after his victory at the 1805 Battle of Austerlitz on territories between the French Empire at the Rhine river and the Kingdom of Westphalia.-History:...
under Murat
Joachim Murat
Joachim-Napoléon Murat , Marshal of France and Grand Admiral or Admiral of France, 1st Prince Murat, was Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808 and then King of Naples from 1808 to 1815...
and of Berthier's aides-de-camp.
Among his chief works are The Entry of Charles X. into Paris, 6 June 1825 at Versailles; Episode of the Prussian War, October 1807 at Douai Museum; Marengo (1801); Lodi, Thabor, Aboukir (1804); The Pyramids (1806); Passage of the Rhine in 1795 (1824), and Moskawa (??).
In fiction
In the historical novel The BattleThe Battle (novel)
The Battle is a historical novel by the French author Patrick Rambaud that was first published in 1997. The English translation by Will Hobson appeared in 2000. The book describes the 1809 Battle of Aspern-Essling between the French Empire under Napoleon and the Austrian Empire...
Lejeune is a main character.