Franco-Prussian War: two nurses treating a wounded German soldier on the battlefield. Wood engraving by W. Hollidge after Princess Louise.

A painting exhibited in aid of German widows and orphans bereaved in the Franco-Prussian War. "In aid of sufferers." From the War Relief exhibition, 39, Old Bond-Street. … We have authority for saying that the admirable drawing (in body-colours) by Princess Louise which we have been permitted to engrave was painted after reading some of the various graphic descriptions which have been published of the scenes on the battle-field after an engagement, and some of the testimonies to the good and noble work performed by the charitable sisters and nurses of the Red Cross who were found ever ready to minister to the sufferers when they lay entirely deserted by all else. Her Royal Highness has sought to realise in imagination a scene of suffering such as many, very many, which have been witnessed in this terrible struggle, and her womanly sympathies have induced her to represent those sufferings as alleviated by the tenderest hearts and gentlest hands among her sex. This neutral voluntary enrolment, as it were, of love and pity in the rear-guard of the armies-to save instead of destroy life-is another comparatively new feature in war, and encourages the hope that our vaunted civilisation--confidence in which has been so rudely shaken--will yet achieve its final triumph in rendering war impossible. It is the devoted band who have enlisted under the banner of the Red Cross, and their auxiliaries, who are winning the best trophies of the war ; and it is their deeds that will form the noblest portion of its history. … The pathetic sympathy with which Princess Louise has treated her pitiful subject is amply apparent by our engraving. The battle is decided; the defeated and the pursuers have passed from view before the day has quite closed in night. leaving their dead and wounded far behind. Pallid light still lingers in the deep blue sky, contrasting with the glare of a burning village ; and over the darkling plain are dimly discerned dead and wounded German and French, thickly strewing the ground, with here and there a dismounted cannon and its smashed carriage. In the midst of this ghastly scene a sister supports a wounded soldier, stanching his bleeding breast, whilst a companion sister is bearing towards her means (besides those in the basket by her side) for further alleviating his sufferings. His life evidently hangs on a thread ; perhaps this timely aid may incline the balance in his favour. If so, can the memory ever be effaced from his mind of this relief to his agony-the moisture to his parched tongue-the soothing bandage which stayed the flow of the few last drops of his life's blood ! … Of the artistic abilities of our whole Royal family we have already spoken in connection with our engraving of the Crown Princess of Prussia's picture, "Widowed and childless ;" and it may suffice only to repeat that Princess Louise (as also, we believe, her sister of Prussia) is not less distinguished in sculpture than in painting. ... It deserves to be remarked, in conclusion, how ready Princess Louise was with her sympathy for the sufferers, as far as she could actively evince it, as is shown by the fact that the date on her drawing, directly following the signature, " Louise, Balmoral," is as early as "September" last; and in the same month the drawing was presented to the only exhibition then on foot in "Aid of Sufferers "--sufferers not less to be pitied than those of the battle-field--the Exhibition for the Relief of Destitute Widows and Orphans of German Soldiers, at the Gallery of the New British Institution, 39, Old Bond-street. This exhibition has proved highly successful. A large proportion of the works were purchased, and the remainder, including many presented near its close, have again been placed on view and for sale at the rooms of the German Academic Society, 4, Hanway street. But arrangements have been made for the eight contributions by the Royal artists, including, of course, this picture by Princess Louise, to again appear at the gallery in Bond-street in the first exhibition of water-colour drawings of the New British Institution, which opens on Monday next, the 21st inst. The object of re-exhibiting the Royal works is to open a subscription-list (for the benefit of the same charity) to purchase those not yet disposed of, each subscriber of five guineas being entitled to one chance of obtaining a Royal work and a series of photographs from the whole number."--Illustrated London news, loc. cit.