FINDING NAPOLEON ON MAY 5

Napoleon Bonaparte’s Death

Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile on St Helena Island on May 5, 1821. The next day, Denzil Ibbetson (1775-1857) came to Longwood House to sketch the Emperor as his body awaited autopsy. Based on his drawings, Ibbetson painted the strikingly modern painting shown above. He gave the painting to Napoleon’s last rival, St Helena’s governor Sir Hudson Lowe. Lowe, in turn, gave it to England’s King George IV, as proof (in the era before photography) of Napoleon Bonaparte’s death.

At the same time, a British Captain, Frederick Marryat (1792-1848), made the black and white chalk drawing (below). Marryat had been stationed on St Helena since 1820. In contrast, Denzil Ibbetson sailed on the British convoy that escorted Napoleon to St Helena in 1815. From 1818 to 1821, he acted as the official purveyor of goods to Longwood House.

As purveyor to Longwood, Ibbetson was frequently in contact with General Henri Bertrand, Napoleon’s “Grand Marshall of the Palace.” Their relationship must have been stormy because General Bertrand’s St Helena memoirs from May 6, 1821, say:

“At ten o’clock Mr Ibbetson and Commander Hariette [Captain Marryat] came to draw the Emperor on his death bed. Mr. Marryat would appear to have made a fairly good likeness of the profile.”

In an obvious snub, Bertrand doesn’t mention Ibbetson’s work.

May 5, Bad Day for Napoleons

In the United States, we don’t think of Napoleon Bonaparte on May 5. Instead, we celebrate Mexican Cinco de Mayo (May 5) as a day to consume guacamole and beer. Few of us realize that’s the celebration of a Mexican victory that stopped the invasion of Mexico by Emperor Napoleon III (nephew to Napoleon I). On May 5, 1861, an outnumbered but valiant Mexican army defeated crack French troops in the town of Pueblo.

It’s a surprisingly important moment in U.S. history. In brief, if the French had taken over Mexico at that time, they intended to support the Confederate South. French resources could easily have changed the outcome of our Civil War. I’m not an expert on that era so if you want the whole story, start with this article from the May 5, 2019, Washington Post.

Back to Napoleon Bonaparte & Ibbetson’s Painting

It’s often interesting to follow the ownership of historical paintings. For almost two hundred years, Ibbetson’s portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte on his deathbed belonged to the British Royal Family. They put it up for sale in the twentieth century. Currently, it’s in the collection of the Comte Charles-André Colonna Walewski, a direct descendant of Napoleon through his Polish mistress Marie Walewska. It’s on permanent loan to the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts. I saw it—and took the photograph above—while it was on tour in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy.