SAUERWEID, Irregular Cossack dressed in the rags of a woman he looted

ALEXANDER SAUERWEID IRREGULAR COSSACK DRESSED IN THE RAGS OF A WOMAN HE LOOTED ALEXANDER SAUERWEID Courland 1783 – 1844 Saint Petersburg Hand-colored aquatint on paper, signed "Sauerweid del.", "Jazet sculp." and in the center "Cosaque irrégulier vêtu de hardes de femme qu'il a pillées." 17 x 17.5 cm, with margins 21 x 26.5 cm PROVENANCE Private collection, Vienna BATTLE SCENES IN POST-NAPOLEONIC PRINTED CULTURE In the years following the fall of Napoleon in 1815, Europe witnessed not only the redefinition of its political map but also a growing public appetite for images that reflected the drama, trauma, and spectacle of the Napoleonic Wars. One of the most fertile channels of this visual culture was that of printed graphics — particularly aquatint and lithography — which allowed for a wide distribution of military subjects to an expanding bourgeois public. Among the numerous artists and publishers active in this context, the collaboration between Alexander Sauerweid and Jean-Pierre-Marie Jazet stands out as a compelling example of transcultural iconographic production. Sauerweid, a Baltic German painter who moved to Russia, became known as a court artist under Tsars Alexander I and Nicholas I and was celebrated for his dramatic equestrian scenes, often enriched with ethnographic details. His images of Cossacks, hussars, and irregular troops catered to both the Western fascination with the Orient and the Russian imperial identity. Jazet, a master of aquatint and a tireless engraver of battle scenes and imperial iconography, brought these compositions to the French public with extraordinary technical refinement. A notable example of this collaboration is the hand-colored aquatint titled: COSAQUE IRRÉGULIER VÊTU DE HARDES DE FEMME QU’IL A PILLÉES ("Irregular Cossack dressed in the rags of a woman he looted") Designed by Alexander Sauerweid and engraved by Jean-Pierre Jazet, the image was published in Paris by Nepveu, a well-known bookseller located at No. 26 Passage des Panoramas. The scene depicts a wild-eyed Cossack riding a galloping steed, dressed in a whimsical and absurd combination of women's clothing, with a lance in hand and the wind tearing at the fabric. Although the tone is humorous, the image also reflects deeper currents in the French perception of the "barbaric" foreigner, portraying the Cossack as exotic and chaotic — a symbol of the Eastern irregularity that had swept across Europe during the wars of 1812–1814. The print can be read as a satire or a form of propaganda about the feared Russian horsemen who entered Paris in 1814. At the same time, it shows Jazet's technical virtuosity in the use of aquatint, a medium that he helped to elevate artistically following in the footsteps of masters such as David, Vernet, and Gros. And it also testifies to Sauerweid's ability to blend drama and detail, creating images capable of capturing the imagination of two empires. The popularity of works of this kind, especially when published in series, reveals the commercial vitality of military print culture in post-Napoleonic France. Publishers such as Nepveu responded to the tastes of the time by offering images that combined entertainment and moral commentary, exploiting the fine line between admiration and derision. This sheet survives today as a curious and vivid document of its time: a window into how war, empire, and identity were imagined, commercialized, and consumed in Europe in the early decades of the 19th century.