The New International Encyclopædia/Northen, Adolf

NORTHEN, nor'ten, Adolf (1828-76). A German battle painter, born at Münden. Hanover. He studied from 1847 to 1851 at the Academy of Düsseldorf, and made that city his permanent home after having declined to accept a Hanoverian stipend coupled with the condition that he should complete his studies under Horace Vernet in Paris. Most of his pictures represent episodes from the campaigns of Napoleon, such as "Encounter Near the Göhrde Forest" (1852, Hildesheim Museum); "Battle of Waterloo" (1835) and "Defense of a Farm" (both in the Hanover Museum); "Napoleon's Retreat from Moscow" (several times); "Episode in Battle of Waterloo" (1801) and "'Storming of Planchenois in 1815" (1802, both in the Hamburg Gallery). His observations on the battlefields in Denmark, 1804, and in Bohemia, 1860, resulted in the depiction of various scenes in those campaigns, notably the "Engagement Near Oeversee" (1866, Rudolphinum, Prague). Although his health was failing at the time of the Franco-German War, he followed the armies to France, and among other war scenes he produced "Attack of Prussian Hussars at Vionville," his last painting.