Pictures Of Napoleon: Part 4

[poliphilo]

 Pictures of Napoleon in exile on St Helena mostly show a man in military garb mooching around, usually on the rocky sea shore, feeling ever so sorry for himself. None of them has much value- either artistic or historical. In fact Napoleon kept himself busy, he dictated his memoirs, took long walks, played with the local children, practiced shooting with pistols and (apparently) a crossbow and indulged a new-found passion for gardening. There's a charming story about him ordering straw hats for the Chinese labourers who worked with him because he didn't want them suffering sunstroke. In fact most of the stories about Napoleon in exile make you think, "What a lovely man."

Here's Orchardson (again) showing Napoleon dictating his memoirs- isolated but still dynamic



And here, in a lithograph by Horace Vernet, he's pictured in in his gardening clothes, a little fat man sitting in the sun with his newspaper.



Back now to the glory days, and a new century.

Many actors have played Napoleon. I'm not sure any have been all that convincing- apart from this man, Albert Dieudonne, who starred in Abel Gance's fabulous silent epic, Napoleon- a movie that experimented with colour, split screen, cinemascope and you name it.





Napoleon died on St Helena aged 51. Dieudonne lived into his 80s and left instructions that he should be buried in his Napoleon clothes.....

Comments

[cmcmck]

'Waterloo' wasn't bad as the more modern films go but you're right about the Gance.

I was reminding myself of Carl Dreyer's 'The Passion of Joan of Arc' the other day. Another great film especially with the modern Richard Einhorn score.

[paserbyp]

https://youtu.be/6504eRh5h6M?si=C7dorQKSzOCcxumS