Album for 1835: Carré enfoncé...

Raffet used lithography to achieve fine tonal gradations and dense, textured surfaces. The black-and-white medium heightens the sense of grit and obscurity. Faces are rendered as indistinct masses, dissolving individual identity into the throng. Brushwork is loose in the foreground, tightening toward the horizon, guiding the eye through layers of smoke and terrain without clarity or resolution.

This print originated in a private album compiled by Raffet in 1835, likely intended for circulation among military circles and art collectors. It was produced during a period of renewed interest in Napoleonic history, as France grappled with its recent past. The album was never formally published, and surviving copies are rare, held primarily in institutional collections today.

Raffet’s work emerged amid France’s Romantic era, when artists increasingly turned to historical and military subjects. Unlike grand historical paintings, his lithographs avoided glorification, focusing instead on the physical and psychological weight of combat. His approach aligned with contemporary shifts in journalism and visual documentation, anticipating later war reportage.

Raffet’s album prints influenced later illustrators and war artists by demonstrating how lithography could convey the immediacy and disorder of battle. His rejection of heroic tropes contributed to a more documentary style in military imagery. Though not widely exhibited in his lifetime, his works became reference points for 20th-century historians studying 19th-century visual culture.