Les Dernières Cartouches

This image reproduces “Les Dernières Cartouches” (“The Last Cartridges”), a famous composition by Alphonse de Neuville devoted to the Franco-Prussian War. The scene shows French soldiers barricaded inside a devastated house, firing through openings while other fighters, wounded or exhausted, take shelter amid debris, overturned weapons, and shattered doors. The composition emphasizes confinement, the exhaustion of the defenders, and the tension of a final stand inside a besieged interior. The printed caption presents the work as the defense of a house surrounded by the enemy. What is shown here is not a direct photograph of the painting itself, but an engraved reproduction published in “L’Univers illustré,” reflecting the editorial circulation of military history painting in the nineteenth century.