Napoleon, the First and Last
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
This print is an English-language version of a popular German satirical broadside first published in 1813 after Napoleon’s defeat at Leipzig. Above a list of mocking and defamatory titles for the emperor appears his “hieroglyphic” profile portrait made up of scornful imagery including the tangled corpses left behind by his armies. Although the meaning of some of the various symbols was lost or changed in the English translation, the original version describes the hat as a Prussian eagle griping Napoleon in its claws, and shows Germany ensnared by the French imperial spider and web, which in turn is being pulled apart by a hand bearing the initials of the allied forces that fought against the emperor.
Caption
Unknown Artist; After Johann Michael Voltz. Napoleon, the First and Last, Etching, letterpress, and watercolor (hand coloring) on wove paper, sheet: 18 1/2 × 11 3/4 in. (47 × 29.8 cm) image: 17 × 9 3/8 in. (43.2 × 23.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Marion Reilly, 29.1619.19. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Gallery
Not on view
Gallery
Not on view
Title
Napoleon, the First and Last
Medium
Etching, letterpress, and watercolor (hand coloring) on wove paper
Classification
Dimensions
sheet: 18 1/2 × 11 3/4 in. (47 × 29.8 cm) image: 17 × 9 3/8 in. (43.2 × 23.8 cm)
Signatures
Unsigned
Credit Line
Bequest of Marion Reilly
Accession Number
29.1619.19
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