Among the decisive events in the French-Prussian War fought between 1870 and 1871 which had as its premise the political and diplomatic action of Bismark, there was the siege of Paris. The defeat of France caused the end of the Empire of Napoleon III and the declaration of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles (January, 18, 1871). The painter Carlo Nogaro (Asti, 1837 – Le Francport,1931) was able to tell a dramatic page about the siege in the extraordinary canvas in Realistic style that visitors can admire on the second floor of Mazzetti Palace called “Retreat from Paris. Italian ambulance”.
The big painting is one of the works given by the artist to the Municipality of Asti in 1919. The rich group of paintings, drawings and sketches documents some aspects of Nogaro’s life and activity, from his training years (painting from life the landscapes of Piedmont and Lazio) to the period in which he was employed in France as painter and decorator for the interiors of the apartments of the upper middle class of Paris, palaces and castles as well as the Café-Chantant and the Hippodrome. After the happy time spent in Lazio countryside, Nogaro lived for a short period in Asti but the precarious working conditions forced him to leave his birthplace and choose adventure. He had been in Algeria, where received important assignments by the Chamber of Commerce of Costantina, then he followed the French army to the Central Africa as illustrator for the Parisian newspaper “L’Illustration”.
The Prussian War interrupted the brilliant beginning of the career of Nogaro, moved to Paris at the end of 1866. The work, painted in his studio in 1872, is referred to the artist’s personal experience during the war in 1870, when he gave assistance to the wounded in the Italian Theatre of Paris. Portraits and names of the 15 artists and musicians forming the Italian ambulance are reproduced on the golden wood plaque that Nogaro painted on the spot “at 4.00 pm” as the caption to the canvas. Next to the names, the cities of origin of the men painted in the work appear, including Trieste, Padua, Florence, Bologna, while for the engraver Cucinotta from Messina the inscription recalls the tragic appointment with fate: “shot by mistake at the entrance of the troops in Paris”.
This work is one of the most persuasive thanks to its dramatic representation of Noisy-le-Sec landscape, at that time the seat of one of the city fortifications. The tragic and extraordinary war panorama is based on two colors: white and grey. On the tragic expanse of snow small figures move; the green and red flags and crosses of the Italian caravan stand out, while the immense sky lets you see the glow of artillery. The canvas is included in the Realistic painting especially for the perspective dimension. The depth of the war scene is also accentuated by the ways run by the garrisons and the central one on which the ambulance wagons stand. The height of the point of view chosen by Nogaro and the width of the view are affected by photography. Nogaro portrayed himself in the shadows of the ambulance, in the act of helping the stretcher-bearers who raise a wounded soldier.
