Homage
to Napoléon 1 fan
By Sylvie E. Gould
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I would like to share with
you some history on a fan I have recently acquired. The paper
leaf is finely hand painted and rather somber in color, befitting
its subject. The paintings recto-verso are surrounded by heavy
gilt foliage, the carved gilt sticks and guards are ivory. The
recto of the fan depicts Napoléon's tomb being opened,
the upright tombstone bears the words "Napoléon 5
Mai 1821" which is the date the Emperor died, a stream flows
by the opened tomb. The Prince de Joinville, easily identified
by his resemblance to King Louis-Philippe, is kneeling in front
of the opened grave. Under weeping willows stands an English
honor guard. This is fiction, since no English nor French honor
guard was in attendance. |
Steep rocks and the sea
can be seen on the background. Bertrand, Marchand and Gourgaud
are depicted standing. On the right a French officer shakes hands
with an English officer. The French officer looks very much like
Napoléon III, but I have no clue as to the identity of
the English officer. Of course, Napoléon III was not present
during these events, my thoughts are that the English honor guard
and Napoléon III? shaking hands with the English officer
are a tribute to the recent French-English reconciliation. Note
that the English wear red coats and the French blue coasts. A
flying eagle (one of the Emperor emblem, the other one being
the bee) holds a French flag on which "Paris" is written,
an allusion to the return of the Emperor's body to Paris. On
the right side of the leaf, an opening through dark clouds reveals
a colurnn among buildings.
This fan illustrates the
events which took place on St.Helena island after Napoléon's
death. On May 5th 1821, on the small island of St. Helena, in
the middle of the South Atlantic, Napoléon Bonaparte,
former Emperor of France died. St. Helena was discovered uninhabited
by the Portuguese navigator Joao da Nova Castella in 1502, it
was annexed by the Dutch in 1633, in 1659 it was annexed and
occupied by the British East India Company. It became a British
crown colony in 1834. The island is best known as the place of
exile of Napoléon I, who was sent there in 1815 after
his defeat at Waterloo. He died at Longwood, near Jamestown in
1821, his last words "à la tête de l'armée".
Officially, he died of cancer of the stomach, but rumors of poisoning
have always been persistent.
After Napoléon's
defeat, the Bourbon monarchy had been restored in France. They
had executed some of Napoléon's followers and exiled others,
so obviously they were not asking for the return of the Emperor's
corpse, so the Great Emperor came to rest in a simple grave on
an island (St.Helena) in the middle of nowhere.
In 1830 the Bourbon king
Charles X was overthrown by the people. Louis Philippe, duke
of Orléans, was proclaimed King of France. The Orléans
family, a junior branch of the Bourbon, had no quarrel with Napoléon.
After few years of rule, Louis Philippe started negotiations
with Great-Britain about the return of Napoléon's body.
It took seven years to obtain their consent. On May 12, 1840,
the French passed a law enabling the return of the Emperor.
A commission was formed.
which would sail to St. Helena, exhume the body and bring it
back to France. The Leader of the expedition was François,
Prince de Joinville, a son of King Louis Philippe. His ship,
the frigate La Belle-Poule, left France on July 7, 1840. On board
were General Bertrand, who had followed Napoléon to St.
Helena, Louis Marchand, Napoléon's manservant, and General
Gourgaud, who had saved the emperor's life during the battle
of Brienne in 1814 and shared his exile for a few years.
La Belle-Poule arrived
at St.Helena on October 8, 1840. One week later, on October 15,
the commission dug the emperor's coffin. The prince opened it
to discover that the body had been perfectly preserved and was
wearing the uniform of the Chasseurs de la Garde.
The frigate docked at
Le Havre in the beginning of December. The emperor's body was
transported over the Seine. The funeral was held in Paris on
December 15, 1840. After a brief rest under the Arc de Triomple,
it was taken along the Champs Elysées, across the Seine
to the Dôme des Invalides where it was carried by 36 sailors
from La Belle-Poule to the church entrance. They were met by
king Louis Phillipe, the Royal Family and field-marshall Moncey
who was in charge of the Hôtel des Invalides. Louis Napoléon
Bonaparte had been refused permission to attend his uncle's funeral
(he was jailed for life in the fortress of Ham for trying to
overthrow the king).
It would take more than
twenty years for Napoléon's tomb to be finished (1861).
By then, King Louis Philippe had been deposed (1848) and Louis
Napoléon Bonaparte had been elected president in 1849.
On December 2nd 1851 he seized complete power and exactly one
year later, was proclaimed emperor as Napoleon III.
Earlier I mentioned a
column on the right side of the leaf. I believe it to be the
Colonne de Vendôme which stands today in the middle of
the Place Vendôme in Paris, surrounded by shops of the
most famous names in fashion as well as the Hôtel Ritz.
Napoléon wanted
to recognize his "Grande Armée" by commissioning
a monument. The 44 meters high column is comprised of a stone
core, encased in the bronze of 1,250 cannons captured at the
Battle of Austerlitz ( 1805). It was designed by Denon, Gondoin
and Lepère and modeled in the style of the Trajan's Column
in Rome. It was constructed between 1806 and 1810. The spiral
bronze bas-relief was created by Bergeret. The pedestal is decorated
with weapons and military accoutrements cast in bronze, a bronze
eagle at each corner. A spiral staircase is inside the monument
leading to a gallery.
The column was topped
by a statue of Napoléon executed by Chaudet. The emperor
wearing a crown of laurels and holding a scepter. In 1814, the
Russians wanted to toppled the monument but only the statue fell.
The bronze from the original statue has been used for the Henri
IV statue which stands at the Pont-Neuf today.
When Louis XVIII returned
to power, a gigantic Fleur de Lys was commissioned for the column
, but this is not the end of the story. Under the July Monarchy,
Marie Seurre restored the Emperor to his pedestal, this time
Napoléon was wearing his familiar "Little Corporal"
overcoat and famous hat. Later Napoléon III commissioned
Dumont for a more noble statue of his uncle in Roman armor. However,
by 1871, the famous painter Courbet who had been nominated by
the Commune, President of the Commission to Save the National
Treasures, did not hesitate to order the demolition of the monument
he despised. The column was restablished at the Center of the
Place Vendôme with a copy of the original statue on top.
Courbet was fined 323,000.68 francs, but rather than pay for
its re-erection, he died in 1877 in exile in Switzerland.
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Now, let's study the verso
of the fan. Napoléon stands in the center among dark clouds
opening to various scenes which will be discussed later. Let's
start with the Emperor. He is dressed in his "trademark"
grey overcoat and famous hat. His right hand is holding a red
"Code" book resting on a pedestal bearing the inscription;
"Napoléon 1er Empereur des Français",
the red tip of the French flag is held by his left hand. Notice
how erect the French flag is compared to the other flags taken
from the enemy. A cannon, drum, wheel and cannon ball are surrounding
Napoléon.
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The book marked "Code"
refers to the Code Civil. In 1800 Napoléon Bonaparte appointed
a commission of jurors to combine all French civil laws into
one code which took effect in 1804. That same year, after Napoléon
became emperor, the code became known as Code Napoléon,
but its official name is Code Civil. The Code is a compromise
between the customary law of northem France and the Roman law
of the south. It gave new liberty to the people, but kept such
ideas as the system of inheritance. It influenced European, South
American, Québec and the State of Louisiana laws.
The French flag, surmounted
by the Imperial Eagle, bears the names "Arcole" and
"Lodi". These refer to two ltalian Campaign battles:
Lodi was fought and won
on May 10, 1796. The Austrian Army was lead by General Jean-Pierre
Beaulieu and the French Army by General Napoléon Bonaparte.
The Austrian had 10,000 men, the French 6,000. Two thousand men
were either killed or wounded on each side. Napoléon personally
lead the assault at bayonet point on a bridge, at the cost of
400 French men killed or wounded. Napoléon earned his
nickname of "Little Corporal" from his troops.
Arcole was fought and
won on November 15-17, 1796. The Austrian Army was lead by General,
Baron Josef Altvintzy and the French Army by General Napoléon
Bonaparte. The Austrian had 20,000 men, the French 18,000. Six
thousand men were either killed or wounded on the Austrian side,
four thousand six hundred on the French side. Bonaparte, flag
in band, personally lead the first assault on the bridge of Arcole.
The bridge was not taken, but this action reinforced his prestige
among the army.
Now let's comment on the
four scenes revealed through the clearings in the dark clouds.
The more elaborate is on the right. Napoléon, in his coronation
robes, appears to his cheering army. The Emperor stands on top
of steps in front of what looks like a fancy military camp. Flags
are flying high, on the left an officer his hat off, salutes
the newly crowned Emperor, more men are behind the Emperor, the
majority is on the right, waiving their arms and brandishing
flags. Two Roman-like columns are on each side of the camp. Unfortunately,
I have not been able to document this scene and do not know if
Napoléon appeared to his troops after the Coronation in
such a setting. Napoléon's Coronation took place on December
2, 1804 in the cathedral Notre Dame de Paris, the ceremony lasted
for more than three hours. After difficult negotiations, Pope
Pius VII accepted to preside, and counter to custom and the agreement
he had with the Pope, Napoléon crowned himself and the
Empress Joséphine, limiting the Pope's role to the blessing
of the crowns. To record the event for posterity, Napoléon
commissioned the artist David to produce a monumental painting,
and contrary to the image, Madame Mère was not present
at the ceremony. The painting is at the Louvre Museum.
The second opening in
the clouds reveals the Colonne de Vendôme discussed earlier.
The third opening represents
the Hôtel des Invalides, final resting place of Napoléon.
The Invalides were created under Louis XIV to come to the aid
of old soldiers who had been forced into either panhandling or
subsiding on church charity .It was created in 1670 and became
home to numerous wounded soldiers. Now it houses the Army Museum
and of course, Napoléon's tomb. In 1861 the Emperor's
remains were put into a porphyry sarcophagus placed on a granite
pedestal in the center of a circular crypt designed by Ludovico
Visconti. Inside the sarcophagus are six more coffins of different
kinds of wood and metal. On the side of the crypt is a small
chamber created in 1969 to hold the remains of Napoléon's
only legitimate child, Napoléon II, also known as the
Duke of Reichstadt. His remains were brought to the Dôme
on December 15, 1940 by Adolf Hitler, who ruled both Paris and
Vienna, where Reichstadt had been buried at that time. It is
also interesting to note that the Army Museum houses Vizir, Napoléon's
white horse (naturalized) which was a gift from the Sultan of
the Ottoman Empire in 1808. The horse accompanied him to St.Helena.
After Napoléon's death the horse went to England then
to France. Also naturalized and preserved at the Museum is Napoléon's
dog who was with him while exiled on the Island of Elba, unfortunately
we do not know the dog's name.
Now we come to the last
vignette on the left side. The scene depicts three officers.
one kneeling in front of a white tomb surrounded by a fence and
weeping willows. Rocks are on the right, a winding road leads
to a rugged mountain and the sea can be seen on the horizon.
This scene took place
on the evening of Wednesday October 14, 1840 when Bertrand, Gourgaud
and Marchand arrived at Napoléon's tomb for the first
time. The Prince de Joinville did not participate and stayed
aboard the frigate. Napoléon's tomb was a simple low white
slab surrounded by a wrought iron fence which can be seen on
the fan.
The burial place was chosen
by Napoléon himself, the following is an account of the
event: "Bertrand recalled that when he was living at Hut's
Gate, one day the Emperor walked with him to a valley which later
was named Geranium Valley (the geraniums were planted by Mrs.
Bertrand) which was a part of the vast Devil Punch Bowl.
The two men walked on
a steep path between pine trees when they arrived to a small
clearing on a hill where the sea could be viewed below. Three
weeping willows were casting their shadow, the spot was restful
and calm. A source was springing from a rock and filling a little
basin (remember the spring beside the opened tomb on the front
of the fan). The prisoner drank some of the water and declared
it so good that each morning, Archambault would fill two silver
bottles with it for Napoléon's use. When they left place,
Napoléon said to his companion: "Bertrand, if after
my death, my body must stay in the hands of my enemies, bury
me there".
Not only the style of
the fan, but the events it depicts should place it between 1840
and 1860.
As usual, any comments
or input would be greatly appreciated. A special thank you to
my cousin, Jean Pierre Dalbiez for finding the last piece of
the puzzle for me.
Accreditation is given
to the following document sources:
and
Napoleon by Andre Castelot
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