NAPOLÉON À BORD DU NORTHUMBERLAND Dessin au crayon avec petits réhauts de

NAPOLEON ON BOARD THE NORTHUMBERLAND Pencil drawing with small red highlights framed with a trompe l'oeil mat. It depicts the Emperor Napoleon I then fallen, embarked on his last voyage to the island of St. Helena. He is sitting on one of the cannons of the ship. He is dressed in the uniform of the Guard horsemen, with his hands in the bridge of his trousers. He is surprisingly wearing the bicorn in a column and not in a battle as usual. Is this a symbolic act of the designer to dethrone the Emperor or a symbolic act of the Emperor? It has a handwritten mention in English ink by the English writer Theodore Hook (1788-1841) "This sketch of Napoleon was made on boat Northumberland man of was on her voyage to St HYelena by mr Comissary Hetson who have it to me in that Island. 26cm/18cm. Mention in pen on the back "This original drawing comes from the Wills collection. In the issue 139 on page 598 of Historia this drawing is reproduced in truth. This reproduction was made from a lithograph that belonged to General Gourgaud, companion of the Emperor at St Helena. The litho itself must necessarily have been made after this original drawing. Presented under glass in a wooden frame.