Napoleon L Gallery

Portrait of Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte, c1804. Artist: Francois Pascal Simon Gerard

Portrait of Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte, c1804. Napoleon (1769-1821) enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks of the French Revolutionary army. In 1799 he led a coup to overthrow the government, the Directory, and became first consul and effective dictator of France. In 1804, he declared himself Emperor, and embarked on a series of military campaigns across Europe, the Napoleonic Wars. Victories such as Austerlitz and Jena led to France establishing its power across much of the continent. In 1812, however, Napoleon embarked on a disastrous invasion of Russia and defeat at Leipzig in 1813 led to his abdication and exile to Elba. He ecaped in 1815, raised another army, but was finally defeated by Wellington at Waterloo, and exiled again to St Helena. Found in the collection of the State A Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow

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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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Caricature of Napoleon, c1814, (1921). Creator: Unknown

Caricature of Napoleon, c1814, (1921). This hieroglyphic portrait of the Destroyer is faithfully copied from a German Print, with the Parody of his assumed Titles. The hat of the destroyer represents a discomfited French Eagle, maimed and crouching, after his conflict with the eagles of the North. His Visage is composed of the carcasses of the victims of his folly and ambition, who perished on the Plains of Russia and Saxony. His Throat is encircled with the Red Sea, in allusion to his drowned hosts. His epaulette is a hand, leading the Rhenish confederation, under the flimsy symbol of the Cobweb. The spider is an emblem of the vigilance of the Allies, who have inflicted on that hand a deadly sting! After Johann Michael Voltz. From "Napoleon", by Raymond Guyot, [H. Floury, Paris, 1921]

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