"Napoléon’s Paper Veterans – Petits Soldats de Strasbourg" Topic

"Once upon a time, in a little town of Strasbourg, there was a baker/flour merchant named Christian Boersch (around 1780-1824) who painted charming little soldiers…

The story, which begins as a fairy tale, is not only true but enables us today to know the uniform worn by the thousands of men who passed through Strasbourg – France's principal fortress facing Prussia – on their way to the battlefields of Europe. It was time when the streets of Strasbourg almost continuously resounded to the tramps of infantry shoes, the jingling of infantry harness, and the rumbling of iron-bound wheels of artillery batteries and supplies wagons. With the town population around 30,000 inhabitants, the permanent garrison ranged between 6,000 to10,000 men, above and beyond units constantly passing through the city. Not surprisingly, therefore, that some local armature artists, editors and book dealers, were inspired to try to capture this military pageantry and military drama in graphic form. When they were successful in so doing, their product found a ready market.

Boersch made and painted his paper miniatures with such care and detail that each figure seems to have actually lived the fantastic epic it represents. Little is known of this obscure Alsatian baker… His artistic development is attributed to the celebrated draftsman Benjamin Zix (1772-1811), whose niece Boersch married. Born in Strasbourg, Zix became known for his excellent painting of Swiss landscapes. In 1806 he was assigned, as a draftsman, to the Grande Armée HQ; at some point he also assisted famous Antoine Gros in his painting of the Battle of Eylau. Zix left us numerous sketches reflecting the every-day life of soldiers in their quarters in bivouac in Prussia, Poland and Spain, far different from the official salon painters…"
Main page
link

Amicalement
Armand

Interesting on two points – how innacurate they may be, and how a major collection was sold off in 1972. Sad

But it illustrates the moving feast that is Naps uniforms – every source is unlikely to have covered every actual uniform. We should be careful about being too prescriptive when we have A source

the semi nude swimmers are not crossing the danube but the Limath

There was no Christian Boersch.

The man in question was called Thiébaut Boersch, born 1782, died 1824. He was the one married to Zix's niece and active during the Empire and early Restauration.

There was a later "Ch. Boertsch" (dit Boerse) who may have been a son or relative (Thiébaut Boersch had two sons called Frédéric-Charles, died 1836, and Charles, died 1846…).

The definitive work on paper soldiers is Edward Ryan's Paper Soldiers which is a large book with excellent illustrations.

Mr Ryan, whom I had the pleasure to meet in 2008, was a collector as well as a War II naval veteran. He fought in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. I have the book and it is well-worth the price if you are interested in these excellent figures.

A smaller, but no less important work on the subject is Les Petits Soldats de Strasbourg by Jean-Pierre Klein, who at the time of publication was the Conservateur du Musee Historique de Strasbourg.

You can also go to the Armchair General Forums and look in the Napoleonic forum and find the uniform thread on Henri Boisselier who also painted paper soldiers.

It is here:

link

I don't know Ryan but when it comes to French paper soldiers I prefer reading the French specialized literature first.

Vovsi's "summary" is full of mistakes itself. He has either not read carefully the French literature or he hasn't read it at all.

Two inaccuracies have already been mentioned above ("Danube", "Christian" Boersch). Another one is that Boersch started his work "around 1810" only. The French specialists say he started "vers 1800" and "dès 1805", but yes, the bulk from 1810.

The claim about Barthel having produced the majority of his works "around 1820s" is unsubstantiated. Martin, Klein, Lotz, Blondieau, all agree that Barthel was active primarily during the Empire, c.1810-15.

Vovsi's sweeping statements concerning recurrent inaccuracies aren't helpful either. One has to review case-by-case. Each artist's biographical data, connections, the source material at his disposal, etc. There are vast differences between the work of contemporaries, such as Boersch and Barthel, who usually just depicted what they had actually seen (Strasbourg was a huge garrison city with a lot of regiments passing by) or what trustworthy informants such as Zix had related to them, and the majority of artists who lived years, if not decades, after the Napoleonic era. It's they who are the most unreliable and "inventive" "uniformologists", responsible for the most striking inaccuracies and undue uniformological "extrapolations".

Many thanks Kevin!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

If your posting is entirely in reference to mine, then most of it is immaterial to my posting on the subject.

I mentioned Edward Ryan and Klein and a thread on the Armchair General referencing Boissilier's work.

If you neglect or ignore Ryan's work, then you are missing out on a great treat. He was a collector and knew his subject very well. He was a specialist on paper soldiers in his own right.

He covered not only the French makers, but those of Great Britain, the United States, German makers, as well as other European makers. The first 145 pages of the book, which is over-sized, cover the French makers and their products.

I haven't referenced Vovsi's article or the inaccuracies that you mention.

So, I do hope that your criticisms are not pointed at me; my posting was certainly not pointed at you as I was merely mentioning two books and a website that might be of interest to the forum on this subject.

Armand,

You're very welcome.

K

So, I do hope that your criticisms are not pointed at me; my posting was certainly not pointed at you

Obviously, your talk is addressed to me?

No, my criticism was not at all pointed at you but just at Vovsi's article.

Ryan may be a collector and specialist on paper soldiers but Klein (at least one French expert you have heard about), Lotz, Martin and Blondieau – collectors and museum folks, too – are the French specialists on paper soldiers and, especially, on the Strasbourg/Alsatian paper soldiers. No need to read a Ryan who, in this respect, is secondary. But thanks for the name-dropping.

Have you seen or read Ryan's book?

If you have you would realize that Edward Ryan is a specialist in paper soldiers.