[1] Meissonier's largest and most ambitious painting depicts one of the greatest victories of Napoleon, which he won over the Russian troops in the Battle of Friedland, on June 14, 1807, during the War of the Fourth Coalition.

Napoleon is shown on a white horse with a raised bicorn in his right hand, accompanied by several of his officers, identified as Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Jean-Baptiste Bessières, Géraud Duroc and Étienne Marie Antoine Champion de Nansouty, while inspecting the triumphant cuirassiers.

He started by painting the sky and made separate studies for each horse and man, using, among others, wax models.

Among his critics were American novelist Henry James and the painter Édouard Manet, who stated, jokingly, that in the painting "everything looks like it's made of steel... except the cuirasses."

The critic Henry Houssaye noted that the painting was fictional, since Napoleon did not review his troops at Friedland.