Auguste Raffet, printmaker

Encouraged by the success of his prints illustrating the military campaigns of Napoleon, Auguste Raffet traveled to Italy to observe and depict a contemporary conflict: the battles in 1848 and 1849 around the short-lived Republic of Rome. Following a popular uprising, the French government sent forces to overthrow the Republic and restore the authority of the Pope. This print, one in a series of thirty-six, shows the French army digging a trench and preparing to lay siege outside the city walls. The presence of the cross and San Prancrazio gate gives the scene a recognizably Italian setting, making the event more vivid for Raffet’s French audience.