Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0003/00033.txt

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$Title{Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte And Life Of Josephine
Prefaces}
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$Author{Tarbell, Ida M.}
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$Date{1906}
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Title:       Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte And Life Of Josephine
Book:        Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte
Author:      Tarbell, Ida M.
Date:        1906

Prefaces

Preface To First Edition

     The chief source of illustration for this volume, as in the case of the
Napoleon papers in McClure's Magazine, is the great collection of engravings
of Mr. Gardiner G. Hubbard, which has been generously placed at the service of
the publishers.  In order to make the illustration still more comprehensive, a
representative of McClure's Magazine and an authorized agent of Mr. Hubbard
visited Paris, to seek there whatever it might be desirable to have in the way
of additional pictures which were not within the scope of Mr. Hubbard's
splendid collection.  They secured the assistance of M. Armand Dayot,
Inspecteur des Beaux-Arts, who possessed rare qualifications for the task.
His official position he owed to his familiarity with the great art
collections, both public and private, of France, and his official duties made
him especially familiar with the great paintings relating to French history.
Besides, he was a specialist in Napoleonic iconography.  On account of his
qualifications and special knowledge, he had been selected by the great house
of Hachette et Cie, to edit their book on Napoleon raconte par l'Image, which
was the first attempt to bring together in one volume the most important
pictures relating to the military, political, and private life of Napoleon.
M. Dayot had just completed this task, and was fresh from his studies of
Napoleonic pictures, when his aid was secured by the publishers of McClure's
Magazine, in supplementing the Hubbard collection.

     The work was prosecuted with the one aim of omitting no important
picture.  When great paintings indispensable to a complete pictorial life of
Napoleon were found, which had never been either etched or engraved,
photographs were obtained, many of these photographs being made especially for
our use.

     A generous selection of pictures was made from the works of Raffet and
Charlet.  M. Dayot was able also to add a number of pictures - not less than a
score - of unique value, through his personal relations with the owners of the
great private Napoleonic collections.  Thus were obtained hitherto unpublished
pictures, of the highest value, from the collections of Monseigneur Duc
d'Aumale; of H. I. H., Prince Victor Napoleon; of Prince Roland; of Baron
Larrey, the son of the chief surgeon of the army of Napoleon; of the Duke of
Bassano, son of the minister and confidant of the emperor; of Monsieur Edmond
Taigny, the friend and biographer of Isabey; of Monsieur Albert Christophle,
Governor-General of the Credit-Foncier of France; of Monsieur Paul le Roux,
who has perhaps the richest of the Napoleonic collections; and of Monsieur le
Marquis de Girardin, son-in-law of the Duc de Gaete, the faithful Minister of
Finance of Napoleon I.  It will be easily understood that no doubt can be
raised as to the authenticity of documents borrowed from such sources.

     The following letter explains fully the plan on which Mr. Hubbard's
collection is arranged, and shows as well its admirable completeness.  It
gives, too, a classification of the pictures into periods, which will be
useful to the reader.

                                             Washington, October, 1894.

          S. S. McClure, Esq.

          Dear Sir: - It is about fourteen years since I became interested
     in engravings, and I have since that time made a considerable
     collection, including many portraits, generally painted and engraved
     during the life of the personage.  I have from two hundred to three
     hundr[e]d prints relating to Napoleon, his family, and his generals.
     The earliest of these is a portrait of Napoleon painted in 1791, when
     he was twenty-two years old; the next in date was engraved in 1796.
     There are many in each subsequent year, and four prints of drawings
     made immediately after his death.

          There are few men whose characters at different periods of life
     are so distinctly marked as Napoleon's, as will appear by an
     examination of these prints.  There are four of these periods: First
     Period, 1796-1797, Napoleon the General; Second Period, 1801-1804,
     Napoleon the Statesman and Lawgiver; Third Period, 1804-1812, Napoleon
     the Emperor; Fourth Period, the Decline and Fall of Napoleon, including
     Waterloo and St. Helena.  Most of these prints are contemporaneous
     with the periods described.  The portraits include copies of the
     portraits painted by the greatest painters and engraved by the best
     engravers of that age.  There are four engravings of the paintings
     by Meissonier - "1807," "Napoleon," "Napoleon Reconnoitering," and
     "1814."

          First Period, 1796-1797, Napoleon the General. - In these the
     Italian spelling of the name, "Buonaparte," is generally adopted.  At
     this period there were many French and other artists in Italy, and
     it would seem as if all were desirous of painting the young general.
     A French writer in a late number of the "Gazette des Beaux-Arts" is
     uncertain whether Gros, Appiani, or Cossia was the first to obtain
     a sitting from General Bonaparte.  It does not matter to your readers,
     as portraits by each of these artists are included in this collection.

          There must have been other portraits or busts of Bonaparte
     executed before 1796, besides the one by Greuze given in this collection.
     These may be found, but there are no others in my collection.  Of the
     portraits of Napoleon belonging to this period eight were engraved
     before 1798, and one in 1800.  All have the long hair falling below
     the ears over the forehead and shoulders; while all portraits
     subsequent to Napoleon's expedition to Egypt have short hair.  The
     length of the hair affords an indication of the date of the portrait.

          Second Period, 1801-1804, Napoleon the Statesman and Lawgiver. -
     During this period many English artists visited Paris, and painted or
     engraved portraits of Napoleon.  In these the Italian spelling
     "Buonaparte" is adopted, while in the French engravings of this period
     he is called "Bonaparte" or "General Bonaparte." Especially noteworthy
     among them is "The Review at the Tuileries," regarded by Masson as
     the best likeness of Napoleon "when thirty years old and in his best
     estate." The portrait painted by Gerard in 1803, and engraved by
     Richomme, is by others considered the best of this period.  There is
     already a marked change from the long and thin face in earlier
     portraits to the round and full face of this period.  In some of
     these prints the Code Napoleon is introduced as an accessory.

          Third Period, 1804-1812, Napoleon the Emperor. - He is now styled
     "Napoleon," "Napoleon le Grand," or "L'Empereur." His chief painters in
     this period are Lefevre, Gerard, Isabey, Lupton, and David (with
     Raphael-Morghen, Longhi, Desnoyers, engravers) - artists of greater
     merit than those of the earlier periods.  The full-length portrait by
     David has been copied oftener and is better known than any other.

          It has been said that we cannot in the portraits of this period,
     executed by Gerard, Isabey, and David, find a true likeness of Napoleon.
     His ministers thought "it was necessary that the sovereign should have a
     serene expression, with a beauty almost more than human, like the deified
     Caesars or the gods of whom they were the image." "Advise the painters,"
     Napoleon wrote to Duroc, September 15, 1807, "to make the countenance
     more gracious (plutot gracieuses)." Again, "Advise the painters to seek
     less a perfect resemblance than to give the beau ideal in preserving
     certain features and in making the likeness more agreeable (plutot
     agreable)."

          Fourth Period, 1812-1815, Decline and Fall of Napoleon. - We have
     probably in the front and side face made by Girodet, and published in
     England, a true likeness of Napoleon.  It was drawn by Girodet in the
     Chapel of the Tuileries, March 8, 1812, while Napoleon was attending
     mass. It is believed to be a more truthful likeness than that by David,
     made the same year; the change in his appearance to greater fulness
     than in the portraits of 1801-1804 is here more plainly marked.  He
     has now become corpulent, and his face is round and full.  Two
     portraits taken in 1815 show it even more clearly.  One of these was
     taken immediately before the battle of Waterloo, and the other, by J.
     Eastlake, immediately after.  Mr. Eastlake, then an art student, was
     staying at Plymouth when the "Bellerophon" put in.  He watched
     Napoleon for several days, taking sketches from which he afterwards
     made a full length portrait.

          The collection concludes with three notable prints: the first of
     the mask made by Dr. Antommarchi the day of his death, and engraved by
     Calamatta in 1834; another of a drawing "made immediately after death
     by Captain Ibbetson, R. N.;" and the third of a drawing by Captain
     Crockatt, made fourteen hours after the death of Napoleon, and
     published in London July 18, 1821.  These show in a remarkable manner
     the head of this wonderful man.

          The larger part of these prints was purchased through Messrs.
     Wunderlich & Co., and Messrs. Keppel of New York, some at auctions in
     Berlin, London, Amsterdam, and Stuttgart; very few in Paris.

          Gardiner G. Hubbard.

     The historical and critical notes which accompany the illustrations in
this volume have been furnished by Mr. Hubbard as a rule, though those signed
A. D. come from the pen of M. Armand Dayot.

Preface To Second Edition

     The Life of Napoleon in this volume first appeared as a serial in Volumes
III and IV of McClure's Magazine.  In 1895 on its completion in serial form it
was published in book form, illustrated by a series of portraits from the
Hubbard collection which had been used in the magazine and by numerous other
pictures drawn from the principal French Napoleon collections.  The
illustrations in the present edition have been selected from those used in the
first.  The variety and extent of these illustrations are explained in the
Preface to the First Edition here reproduced.  The Life of Napoleon is
supplemented in the present work by a sketch of Josephine.  The absence of any
Life of Josephine in English drawn from recent historical investigations is
the reason for presenting this sketch.  Until within a very few years the
first Empress of the French People has been pictured to the world as her
grandson Napoleon III desired that she appear - a fitting type for popular
adoration - more of a saint and a martyr than of a woman.  The present sketch
is an attempt to tell a true story of her life as it is revealed by the recent
diligent researches of Frederic Masson and by the numerous memoirs of the
periods which have appeared, many of them since the passing of the Second
Empire. If the story as told here is frank, it is hoped by the author that it
will not be found unsympathetic.