Lot 4589: ÖSTERREICH KAISERREICH - Ludwig Albrecht Schuster (1824 - 1905) - Hussars engagement in the battle of Solferino.

Oil on canvas on wood. In the foreground an Austrian hussar officer of the 10th regiment and a French of the 5th regiment fighting, in the middle ground the raging battle of the cavalry in front of a landscape in the background that is mostly covered by gun smoke. In a partly gilt profiled frame. Dimensions of the board 43 x 27 cm, dimensions with frame 48 x 33 cm.
Characteristic for this most important battle (24.6.1859) of the Second Italian War of Independence or Austro-Sardinian War was the fact, that the armies of the involved nations, Austro-Hungary, France and the Kingdom of Sardinia were accompanied by their corresponding sovereigns, Franz Josef I, Napoleon III and Viktor Emanuel II. Even though this battle is considered to have been one of the bloodiest since Waterloo it also led to the establishment of the Red Cross by Henry Dunant and ultimately to the agreements of the Geneva Conventions.

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