The Sun of Austerlitz

Eugène Samuel Grasset

1894

Printed by the Century Co., New York

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

A man in military attire rides a white horse, looking to the right. He wears a dark coat, a bicorne hat, and medals. The background features a bright yellow sky with stylized clouds in shades of orange and red. A man in military attire rides a white horse, looking to the right. He wears a dark coat, a bicorne hat, and medals. The background features a bright yellow sky with stylized clouds in shades of orange and red. Midway between the fine and the decorative arts, Eugène Grasset’s oeuvre reflects both a nostalgia for the past and a desire for innovation. The memory of Napoleon was being revived in all fields of art and is to be found in Grasset’s Art Nouveau compositions. In the first of the works shown here he depicts General Bonaparte in Egypt giving a fiery speech to spur his troops into battle, uttering the famous words: “From the Py