Images

A 19th-century print titled 'The Alchymist', after Teniers, by W. Baillie. The alchemist is using bellows to increase the temperature of the furnace which is heating a condenser. (Science Museum, London)

A detail of The Alchemist by Joseph Wright of Derby. Oil-on-canvas painted in 1771. (Derby Museum & Art Gallery, Derby, UK)

War Dance, Sioux, oil on canvas by George Catlin, 1845-48. Smithsonian American Art Museum.

French Emperor Napoleon I retreats from Moscow after his disastrous invasion of Russia. Though it has long been said that "General Winter" defeated the French, the failure of Napoleon's invasion of Russia had already occurred by winter's...

Napoleon's Grande Armée crosses the Niemen River, commencing Napoleon's invasion of Russia (1812). Watercolor by an anonymous artist, 1810s.

The remnants of the French Grande Armée cross the Berezina River in the aftermath of Napoleon's invasion of Russia (1812), oil on canvas painting by January Suchodolski, 1866. National Museum in Poznań

Napoleon's Grande Armée retreats across the freezing Berezina River at the end of the catastrophic invasion of Russia of 1812. Painting by Victor Adam, c. 19th century.

Napoleon's Grande Armée bivouacs during a nighttime blizzard during their retreat from Moscow, 1812. Painting by Vasily Vereshchagin, part of the series Napoleon I in Russia, c. 1896-97, Museum of the Patriotic War of 1812, Moscow.

Charles Minard's famous 1869 chart detailing the number of men in Napoleon's Grande Armée during his 1812 invasion of Russia; the tan represents the men who invaded Russia itself, while the black represents the retreat from Moscow. The way...

Napoleon watches Moscow burn during his brief occupation of the city in 1812. By Albrecht Adam, 1841.