Napoleon's Soldiers: The Grande Armee of 1807 as Depicted in the Paintings of the Otto Manuscript

Guy Dempsey is one of the best uniformologists that is active today, and this assembly of the eyewitness drawings of Napoleon's Grande Armee in Hamburg in 1807 is superb. The prints are a valuable primary source, but they are brought to life by the author's authoritative narrative, which gives this little gem of a book double the value. Considerable expert research went into this book, and it is one of the best sources for what the Grande Armee looked like on campaign. The originals of the Otto Manuscript, from which these prints are taken, are in the Anne Brown Military Collection at Brown University, the unrivalled source for much archival material for the Napoleonic period in the United States. Mr. Dempsey has done us all a great service by reproducing these prints and by his careful, methodical research and narrative. This book is a must for the serious student of the period.

The Otto Manuscript, containing a number of paintings of the soldiers of Napoleon's Grande Armee in the year of Friedland, was apparently painted from life by an amateur with an eye for detail. As a primary source, it is invaluable for its evidence of the actual appearance of the French army at the height of its greatness under Napoleon, and during a period when uniform regulations were altering the basic appearance of the soldier. This volume presents, for the first time, color reproductions of all of the plates, at a useful size, with commentary by the author. The reproduction is of excellent quality, and places this book on the "must have" list for anyone interested in Napoleonic uniforms.The commentary is perhaps less consistently helpful. The author is apparently an amateur scholar and unfamiliar with the conventions of referencing sources. He also does not have a very good eye for detail, as in several places he makes observations concerning the paintings that are belied by a careful examination of the illustration. His views on the fading/discolouration of watercolor pigments do not reflect much familiarity with the chemistry and behaviour of those pigments, and so the comments regarding each figure must be treated cautiously. On the other hand, his introduction provides an excellent exposition of the history of the document and a cogent analysis of its reliability.Despite these minor failings, Mr. Dempsey is to be commended for bringing these paintings to publication in a work of such a high standard.

Little needs to be said. If this book were only a reproduction of these illustrations, it would be a bargain, but Dempsey's commentary provides a great deal of insight placing the illustrations in context and identifying anomolies and commonalities.