[Uniform of German army] (Bombardier) pioneers. Duchy of Nassau. 1835-43

Lithography on the drawing by Heinrich Ambrose Eckert (1807-1840) and Dietrich Monten (1799-1843) for edition "Das deutsche Bundesheer in charakteristischen Gruppen entworfen und nach der Natur gezeichnet, von Heinrich Ambros Eckert und Heinrich Maria Dietrich Monten bei Christian Weiß in Würzburg" [German Army, designed in characteristic groups. Life-drawing. Wuerzburg, edition by Christian Weiss]. 1835-43.

Image size: 24 x 20.5 cm, sheet size of 35 x 24.6 cm.
Paper Letmathe (watermark), coloured lithography, watercolor. The image sheet is glued on a sheet with inscriptions.
On the image below on the left side initials of artist "DM".
Below the image inscription in French: «Duche Nassau. Bombardier & Pioniers». Embossed stamping under the inscription «H. A. Eckert & Chr. Weiss».
Staining, foxing, owner's remarks in pencil.

The image is printed in the book "Das deutsche Bundesheer. Nach dem Uniformwerk aus den Jahren 1835 bis 1843." by Georg Ortenburg. Harenberg Dortmund, 1990, p. 569, ill. 413.
The job of the pioneers in the army is to help their own army advance and prevent the enemy from passing through. To do this the pioneers build bridges, roads, dig ditches and so on. Sometimes this branch of the army is combined with the sappers.

Dietrich Monten (1799–1843) was a German historical painter, battle painter, genre painter, printmaker and lithographer. He studied at the Academy of Arts in Dusseldorf starting from 1821, then at the Munich Academy of Arts under the supervision of P. von Hess (the creator of the gallery of paintings dedicated to the most important battles of the French invasion of Russia in 1812 for the Winter Palace). His works are in the collections of the Neue Pinakothek, the National Museum of Germany and the Military History Museum in Vienna.

Heinrich Ambros Eckert (1807-1840) was a German battle painter. He studied at the Munich Academy of Arts starting from 1825, then continued his studies in Tyrol and in France. In 1835-1840 together with Dietrich Monten and August Schelver he published about 200 lithographs with images of the uniforms of the German army, and then lithographs of scenes of the return of the Russian army from the Liberation campaign of 1814–1815.