Slag bij Lafelt, 1747 1771

Antoine Benoist made this etching of the Battle of Lauffeld in 1771, a depiction of the French victory in the War of the Austrian Succession. The print shows the French army, led by King Louis XV, triumphing over allied forces. We can see meaning created here through the visual codes of power and dominance. Louis XV is the central figure. He is on horseback, brandishing his sword, an assertion of royal authority and military strength. The image was made during the height of the Enlightenment, when the social and political structures of the Ancien Régime were still firmly in place. Louis XV would have deployed images such as these to reinforce his power and bolster the monarchy’s prestige. To fully understand the print, we have to look at its institutional history. It was published by F. Niwares, a commercial printmaker who sold images to a growing market of consumers hungry for news and entertainment. A social historian might look at archival records of print sales and distribution to better understand its circulation and reception.