The Capture of Lieutenant General Johann Hermann von Fersen During the Battle of Bergen (19 September 1799)

Dirk Langendijk Dutch

Not on view

In August 1799, Anglo-Russian forces invaded the Netherlands, which had, in 1795, proclaimed itself the Batavian Republic in alliance with Revolutionary France. A month later the Dutch and French claimed an important victory at the Battle of Bergen in North Holland. This sheet depicts a decisive moment in that battle. Left of center, Johann Hermann von Fersen, an infantry general in the Imperial Russian Army, is seized from his horse. Other fallen soldiers and horses appear in the foreground. Smoke and gunpowder fill the sky with a thick haze.

Here, as with his drawing of the British troops landing at Callantsoog (British National Maritime Museum, Greenwich), Langendijk claimed firsthand observation with the inscription “ad viv delint” (drawn from life).

(JSS, 8/23/2018)

The Capture of Lieutenant General Johann Hermann von Fersen During the Battle of Bergen (19 September 1799), Dirk Langendijk (Dutch, Rotterdam 1748–1805 Rotterdam), Brush and gray and black wash, pen and grey ink

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