The Defence of Mazagran

The Defence of Mazagran is an 1841 history painting by the French artist Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux. It depicts a scene from the French conquest of Algeria. During the Battle of Mazagran on 6 February 1840, a small force of French soldiers repulsed an assault led by Mustapha Ben Tami on the towns walls of Mazagran. The heroic resistance of a vastly outnumbered force, draws parallels with the Spartans at Battle of Thermopylae.
Stylistically it reflects the fashionable Romanticism of the period. The painting was commissioned by the Ministry of War. It was displayed at the Salon of 1842 held at the Louvre in Paris. Today it is in the collection of the Musée de l'Histoire de France at the Palace of Versailles.