A haunting photographic reproduction of one of the most emotionally charged military paintings in French history — Ernest Meissonier's monumental 1814, capturing a grey-coated Napoleon astride his white horse, leading a battered column of soldiers across a frozen, churned landscape. The image radiates exhaustion and defiance in equal measure: the emperor's arms are folded, his bicorne low, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the horizon as muddy boots and weary horses press forward behind him. Painted decades after the fact by Ernest, who was obsessed with historical precision, the canvas became the centerpiece of Alfred Chauchard's legendary collection, which passed to the Louvre upon his death in 1909 — placing this card squarely in the decade immediately following that bequest. The photographic quality is exceptional for the era, with a detail close-up of the lower-right corner showing Ernest's painted signature in the muddy ground itself, a characteristically humble flourish. Publisher A.N. Paris assigned this card no. C que 87, series 235.