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| Title | Le Commencement et La Fin |
| Creator | Anonymous |
| Place of Publication | [France -- Paris] |
| Date | [1814] |
| Caption Text | Caption on image:
Le Commencement et La Fin (The beginning and the end)
Words on suit:
G'al de l'armée d'Egypte (General of the Army of Egypt)
Bonaparte
Restaurateur (Restorer)
Consul à vie (Consul for life)
Pacificateur (Peacemaker)
1er consul
Capi. D'Artillerie (Captain of the artillery)
G'al de la 17e division 13 Vend (General of the 17th division, 13th day of the month Vendemiaire [also known as the festival of the pumpkin]
Eleve à l'Ecole Militaire (Student at the Ecole Militaire)
Buonaparte
Gnl de l'armée d'Italie (General of the army of Italy)
Pdt de la République Italienne (President of the Italian republic
Emp des Français (Emperor of the French)
Roi d'Italie (King of Italy)
Protecteur de la Confed du Rhin (Protector of the confederacy of the Rhine)
Bourgeois de l'Ile d'Elbe (Bourgeois of the island of Elba.
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| Historical Notes | Napoleon, dressed as a harlequin, jumps from a small boat onto the island of Elba, where he sees a fort. He has a wooden sword in his belt and wears a riding boot on one foot, and a clog on the other, inscribed with the word Corsica. (The clog could be a play on words: the French word is "sabot", but the word "nabot" is slang for a very short person.) The words on his costume list the stages of his career. He carries the flag he chose for Elba, which was first used in the time of the Medicis and on which you see the bees that symbolized his empire.
When Napoleon was exiled to Elba, he was given sovereignty over it and allowed to keep a tiny navy to defend it. The title may be tongue-in-cheek, since Talleyrand called the campaign of 1813 that culminated in the disastrous Battle of the Nations (Leipzig) "The beginning and the end."
Reference source: Clerc #64; George #12249.
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| Publishing Notes | Published May 3, 1814, according to Clerc, or in March, according to Broadley. Also found in the De Vinck collection (#9353) at the Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris).
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| Subjects (LCSH) | Political cartoons
History--Caricatures & cartoons
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821
Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1815
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| Geographic Coverage | France |
| Digital Collection | Napoleonic Period Collection
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| Digital ID Number | NAP61 |
| Repository | University of Washington Libraries. Special Collections Division. |
| Repository Collection | Napoleon Collection |
| UW Reference Number | F29 |
| Object Type | Print |
| Physical Description | Etching, hand colored ; plate mark 25 x 18 cm. on sheet 29 x 21 cm. |
| Digital Reproduction Information | Scanned from original drawing in RGB at 200-400 dpi, saved in TIFF format, changed to indexed color, enhanced and resized using Adobe Photoshop, and imported as JPEG2000 using Contentdm software's JPEG2000 Extension. 2006. |
