General Görgey’s Troops Besieging Buda Castle, May 1849, watercolour and tempera on card, 93 x 258 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Italy.

We are grateful to Dr. Cav. Arabella Cifani for the scholarly advice and cataloguing of this work.

This watercolour depicts a very rare scene: the Hungarian revolutionary general Görgey’s troops besieging Buda Castle in May 1849. Buda Castle is the historic seat of the Hungarian monarchy in Budapest. On 5 January 1848 Buda was occupied by the Austrian army led by Prince Alfred of Windisch-Graetz.

On 4 May 1849, Artúr Görgey’s Hungarian army laid siege to the castle, which was defended by General Heinrich Hentzi. On 20 May, the Hungarians recaptured the castle after a great assault. The conquest of Buda Castle concluded the complete liberation of the Hungarian capitals (Buda and Pest). On 21 May, the two emperors Francis I of Austria and Czar Nicholas I of Russia signed the final treaty committing 200,000 Russian soldiers to Hungary to help the Habsburg Empire crush the Hungarian revolution. In June 1849, Russian and Austrian troops entered Hungary and heavily defeated the Hungarian army. The watercolour offers a unique view of the siege of Buda Castle, with Hungarian troops focused on the siege from an elevated position.