Morale is Affected by the Austrians! 1833

Auguste Raffet created this lithograph, titled 'Morale is Affected by the Austrians!', sometime in the first half of the 19th century. It depicts a scene of French soldiers in disarray during a military campaign. The print creates meaning through its use of visual codes and historical associations. Raffet made his reputation by creating imagery that bolstered the Napoleonic myth after the emperor's fall. The image shows French troops demoralized by an encounter with Austrian forces. Military prints like this one were enormously popular in France at the time, and the French public had a voracious appetite for images that depicted the nation's military exploits. The print also comments on the social structures of its time, specifically on the romantic idealization of military life, which Raffet critiques by showing the grim reality of war. To understand this image better, one might research the history of military printmaking in 19th-century France. The meaning of this artwork is contingent on its social and institutional context, which historians can help to illuminate.