March. Ml. 



KXO\\Li:i)GI-:. 



gf) 



Napolcoa alter death, from a walci-culoui on straw paper 



bv a Chinese artist at St. Helena in 1821. In the collection 



of Mr. A. M. Broadlcy. 



described in it as Captaii\ 

 Ibbetson, R.E. 



Captain Frederick 

 Marryat. R.X. (1792- 

 1848) the well-known 

 novelist, was, in June. 

 1820. appointed to the 

 ■■ Beaver " sloop \\ hich 

 was emplo\ed on the St. 

 Helena station till after 

 the death of Napoleon. 

 Marrvat w as also permit- 

 ted to make a sketch of 

 the illustrious e.xile as he 

 lay dead on the historic 

 Austerlitz camp -bed- 

 stead. Of this drawing 

 he made and signed 

 several replicas in pen 

 and ink and wash ; one 

 of these is now my 

 property. Marryat's 

 posthumous portrait of 

 Napoleon was almost 

 immediateK' published 

 in England, German\- 

 and France. On the 

 English version we read : 

 — " Sketch of Bonoparte, 

 as laid out on his Auster- 

 litz Camp Bed, taken by 

 Captain Marryat, R.N., fourteen hours after his 

 decease, at the request of Sir Hudson Lowe, Governor 

 of St. Helena and with the permission of Count 

 Montholon and General Bertrand." The drawing 

 must have been sent to. London almost as soon as 

 the despatches announcing Napoleon's demise, for 

 it was brought out by Messrs. Fuller, of Kathbone 

 Place, on July 16th following. (See Figure 100.) 



In his admirable book. "" A Polish Exile w ith 

 Napoleon," Mr. G. L. de St. M. Watson sa\s : " It 

 was on May 6th, at 8 a.m., that Marryat sketched, 

 with an austere frugality of line, his noted profile 

 of Napoleon on the camp bed, which he gave to 

 Captain Crokat. of the 20th Regiment, and which 

 was published on July 16th by S. and J. Fuller, as 



a lithograph and also as an etching, and on July 18th 

 by J. Watson, as a soft-giround etching." Marrvat 

 (juitted St. Helena in the " Rosario " on May 16th. 

 There were two or three French editions of the 

 Marryat plate. In that of 1840 the descriptive text 

 reads : '' Napoleon Grave par W. Humphre\' d" 

 apres le dessin fait a St. Helene par le Capitaine 

 Marryat, C.B., officier de la Legion d" Honneur, iiiic 

 liciirc aprcs la mort de 1' limpreur." In view of the 

 wide-sjiread distribution of these Marryat death- 

 bed portraits it is almost incredible to relate that 

 the presence of one of the sketches in a local 

 museum was quite recently proclaimed to be 

 an event of almost world-wide importance. The 

 picture was at once reproduced as a great 

 historical and artistic discovery in a large 

 niunber of London and 

 provincial newspajiers, 

 to the astonishment and 

 dismay of Mr. Clement 

 Shorter and other stu- 

 dents of St. Helena 

 iconography. In the 

 interests of true history, 

 I addressed the follow ing 

 letter to The Times, in 

 which the " latest Napo- 

 leonic find" had been dulv 

 annoimced : — "There are 

 several authentic por- 

 traits of Napoleon after 

 death in existence practi- 

 callv identical with that 

 reported to have been 

 recently discovered at 

 Maidstone. One of these 

 (signed by the artist) is in 

 m\ collection. I have seen 

 two others, and a fourth 

 was latelv in possession of 

 a granddaughter of the 

 artist. Lithographs after 

 Marr\at's sketch were 

 subsequently published 

 both in London and 

 Paris. A similar draw ing 

 was made h\ I)e[Hity 



FiGUItE 102. 



Pistrucci's lithograph of Napoleon after deatli. 



London. 1S22-J. 



U-Ki; 1(13. De;itliiiiaskof Napcjlini 

 in the collection of Mr. .-V. 



after Dr. .Antoiniiiarchi, 

 M. Broadlev. 



