Friday, March 2, 2018

Friedrich the Great after the Battle of Kolin


Title: Friedrich der Große nach der Schlacht bei Kolin (Frederick the Great after the battle of Kolin)
Artist: Julius Schrader (1815-1900)
Date: 1849

The Battle of Kolín on 18 June 1757 saw 44,000 Austrians under Count von Daun defeat 32,000 Prussians under Friedrich the Great during the Third Silesian War (Seven Years' War). The Prussians lost the battle and nearly 14,000 men, the Austrians lost 8,000 men. The battle was Friedrich's first defeat in this war, and forced him to abandon his intended march on Vienna, raise his siege of Prague, and fall back on Litoměřice. The Austrians, reinforced by the 48,000 troops in Prague, followed them, 100,000 strong, and, falling on Prince August Wilhelm of Prussia, who was retreating eccentrically (for commissariat reasons) at Zittau, inflicted a severe check upon him. The king was compelled to abandon Bohemia. This painting by Julius Schrader showed the exhausted monarch resting on a bench after the battle.


Sources :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kol%C3%ADn