Overall: 39cm (15.3in) x 32.5cm (12.8in)
Hand-coloured aquatint. ‘The Exile / A Sketch from Life at Longwood, April 1820’. Portrait of Napoleon at Saint Helena, standing full-length, in profile to left, hands in pockets, wearing a brown suit and broad rimmed hat; a shovel on the right, flower pot on the left. Lettered below image with title and publication line ‘Published July 24 1820 by R. Cribb & Son, 288 Holborn’. Framed and glazed.
Said to be taken from one of the sketches drawn from life during Napoleon's exile on St Helena, this portrait revealed a rarely imagined side of his character. as one enjoying the simple pleasures of a garden. It stood in stark contrast to that of a patron of the sciences and progress, a lawgiver consummate administrator and military genius who bound up the wounds of the French Revolution, only to unleash war across Europe. A copy this rare print in the British Museum reportedly belonged to the eccentric English dilettante William Beckford of Fonthill Abbey.