Napoleon: a life

Paintings

Napoleon’s mother Letizia Bonaparte in 1800, by Jean-Baptiste Greuze. She brought him up strictly, and he would later say that he owed her everything.

Two sketches of Bonaparte by Jacques-Louis David.

General Bonaparte drawn from life by Giuseppe Longhi during the Italian campaign of 1796.

Founding myth: General Bonaparte leading his troops accross the Bridge of Arcole, by Antoine-Jean Gros. Napoleon never got anywhere near the bridge, and his attempt to do so ended ignominiously with his being pulled out of a muddy drainage ditch.

This portrait of Bonaparte by Francesco Cossia was commissioned in 1797 by his English admirer Maria Cosway. Cossia found his model so nervous and restless that he gave up and refused to accept any money for it — yet the unfinished work captures some of the energy and immaturity of the tortured twenty-seven-year-old general.

Josephine Bonaparte in 1797, by Andrea Appiani. Feted and covered in looted jewels by her adoring husband, she cheated on him shamelessly throughout his epic campaign.

Auguste Marmont, by Georges Rouget, was the first of a series of exalted young men who hero-worshipped Napoleon and attached themselves to him.

Andoche Junot, sketched ten years later by Jacques-Louis David, was plucked out of the ranks by Major Buonaparte at Toulon in 1794 and became an inseparable and adoring friend.

The swashbuckling cavalryman Joachim Murat rendered vital service in the events of 13 Vendémiaire which launched Napoleon’s political career, would marry his youngest sister and become a central (if untrustworthy) figure in his entourage.

Josephine’s son Eugène de Beauharnais, depicted here by Antoine-Jean Gros as Napoleon’s aide-de-camp, fulfilled the role of a surrogate son.

Napoleon’s younger sister Pauline, by Jean Jacques Thérésa de Lusse, was his favourite, however much he might disapprove of her promiscuity, and she remained the most faithful to him.

This painting by Antoine-Jean Gros of General Bonaparte visiting victims of the plague at Jaffa during his Syrian campaign was commissioned to represent his compassionate nature, and at the same time to endow him with a Christ-like aura through the suggestion of his own immunity and of the healing nature of his touch.

According to Corsican custom Joseph was the head of the family, and Napoleon tried to give him his due, but although he felt great affection for him, he could not hide contempt for his weakness.

Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, by Nicolas Joseph Jouy. Napoleon despised him, but since he married the sister of Joseph’s wife (who had also been an early love of Napoleon’s), he was part of the family.

Napoleon’s mercurial younger brother Lucien saved his coup from failure and him from the scaffold, but their views soon diverged, and by the time this portrait was painted, around 1808 by François-Xavier Fabre, he would have nothing to do with the Napoleonic venture.

Bonaparte in the uniform of First Consul, 1800, by Louis Leopold Boilly.

The house in the rue de la Victoire where Napoleon first visited Josephine and where the coup was planned.

The Tuileries, with the arch of the Carrousel, c. 1860. The area between the palace and the arch was where the regular parades were held.

Jean-Jacques-Régis Cambacérès, Napoleon’s closest political associate, by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1805.

The brilliant foreign minister Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, seen here at the coronation in 1804, by Jacques-Louis David, was one of Napoleon’s greatest supporters, but with time their ideas of what was best for France diverged, and he would betray him.

Joseph Fouché, the police chief who protected Napoleon, but he too eventually betrayed him.

Like her brother Eugène, Josephine’s daughter Hortense de Beauharnais, portrayed by François Gérard, was adopted by Napoleon and treated as if she were his own daughter.

The Château of Malmaison, by Henri Courvoisier-Voisin, where Napoleon loved to relax and play.

Napoleon’s favourite younger brother Louis (in 1809, by Charles Howard Hodges), whom he forced to marry Hortense against both their wishes.

This painting by Jacques-Louis David of Napoleon crossing the Alps in 1802 on his way to victory at Marengo is one of the icons of Napoleonic mythology: in fact, he crossed on a mule led by a guide, his hat and uniform covered in protective oilskin, and did not take the same route as Caesar or Hannibal. Nor could he be bothered to sit for the portrait, so David used his own son as a model. But he did insist that he should be depicted full of martial energy yet making a pacific gesture rather than brandishing a sword, as he was already trying to project an image of the ruler rather than the soldier.

The Emperor Napoleon I, painted in 1805 by Jacques-Louis David in the classic convention of the royal portrait established by the Sun King Louis XIV.

A fragment of Jacques-Louis David’s painting of the coronation, showing, from left to right, Joseph, Louis, Napoleon’s three sisters and Hortense, holding the hand of her son Napoléon-Charles.

Napoleon’s youngest brother, the feckless Jérôme, 1805.

This depiction of Napoleon on the battlefield of Eylau by Antoine-Jean Gros was painted to strict instructions — that the emperor be represented casting ‘a consoling eye’ over the field of carnage in order ‘to soften the horror of death’ and exuding ‘an aura of kindness and majestic splendour’. Note the fantastic ‘Polish’ costume of Murat, which Napoleon said made him look like a circus-master.

One of Napoleon’s closest and dearest real friends, Marshal Jean Lannes, by François Gérard.

General Armand de Caulaincourt, who became a close and loyal confidant, sketched in 1805, by Jacques-Louis David.

Perhaps Napoleon’s closest friend, General Géraud-Christophe Duroc, by Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson.

Napoleon I on the Imperial Throne, painted in 1806 by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, by which time the emperor was projecting the image of himself as a latter-day Charlemagne, replicating the style and attributes recorded on Carolingian seals.

View of the proposed Palace for the King of Rome, by Pierre-François Fontaine.

This painting by Alexandre Menjaud of Napoleon en famille hugging the King of Rome is part of an iconography that sought to reassure ordinary Frenchmen that an era of peace and stability had dawned, yet it was strikingly at odds with his escalating imperial programme.

Napoleon in his study at the height of his power, in early 1812, by Jacques-Louis David.

Napoleon on the bridge of HMS Bellerophon after giving himself up to the British in 1815, by an evidently unimpressed witness, Charles Lock Eastlake.

The house at Longwood on the island of St Helena, where Napoleon spent his last years and died, photographed c. 1940.

Napoleon on St Helena, drawn in June 1820 by a clearly unsympathetic British visitor.

Also by Adam Zamoyski

Chopin: A Biography

The Battle for the Marchlands

Paderewski

The Polish Way

The Last King of Poland

The Forgotten Few: The Polish Air Force in the Second World War

Holy Madness: Romantics, Patriots and Revolutionaries, 1776–1871

1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow

Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna

Warsaw 1920: Lenin’s Failed Conquest of Europe

Poland: A History

Chopin: Prince of the Romantics

Phantom Terror: The Threat of Revolution and the Repression of Liberty 1789–1848

ADAM ZAMOYSKI is the author of numerous books about Polish and European history and has written for publications including the Times (London), the Times Literary Supplement, and the Guardian. He lives in London and Poland.