Bonaparte The Corsican Gallery

Monument to Admiral Maitland, 1845. Creator: Unknown

Monument to Admiral Maitland, 1845. Sculpture ...in alto relievo, by Mr. T. Campbell, of Great Marlborough-street, London, of British naval officer, Rear-Admiral Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland. A beautiful white marble monument has just been placed in the chapel of the Dockyard at Portsmouth, to the memory of Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland...With other circumstances which have attached fame and honour to the name of the gallant deceased is associated one which must hand down his name to posterity, as connected with the most remarkable events of modem times; we allude to the fact of Napoleon having surrendered to him, on board the Bellerophon, 78, after the disastrous affair of Waterloo, when off Rochfort, on the 15th of July, 1815...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1845, Vol VII

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Study for The Distribution of the Eagle Standards, c1808, (1921). Creator: Jacques-Louis David

Study for The Distribution of the Eagle Standards, c1808, (1921). La distribution des aigles au Champ-de-Mars'. Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821) distributes eagles based on the Roman aquila of the legions of Rome, as the winged figure of Nike, the goddess of victory, floats over the troops. The standards represented the regiments raised by the various departments of France. Preliminary sketch for a painting titled Serment de l'armee fait a l'empereur apres la distribution des aigles au champ de Mars, 5 decembre 1804, (Oath of the army made to the emperor after the distribution of the eagles at the field of Mars, 5 December 1804). Painted in 1810 by Jacques-Louis David, the scene is a military ceremony arranged by Napoleon after his assumption of power as Emperor of the French, in which he sought to revive the military ethos and pageantry of the Roman Empire. From "Napoleon", by Raymond Guyot, [H. Floury, Paris, 1921]

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First telegraph despatch from Lyon, 4 March 1815, (1921). Creator: Unknown

First telegraph despatch from Lyon, 4 March 1815, (1921). Premiere depeche telegraphique de Lyon'. Message sent via French inventor Claude Chappe's (1763-1805) optical telegraph (semaphore) system, devised in 1793. Messages were converted into semaphore using movable arms on the tops of repeater towers which were placed from 12 to 25 km (10 to 20 miles) apart. The message was read through a telescope, then relayed it to the next tower. Messages sent from Paris could reach the outer fringes of the country in a matter of three or four hours. Before, it had taken despatch riders on horseback a similar number of days. Chappe's system was in use until about 1850 when electric telegraph systems replaced it. This message states that the emperor has arrived on the coast of France with 1600 men'. Facsimile document from "Napoleon", by Raymond Guyot, [H. Floury, Paris, 1921]

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