Eastlake and Napoleon Wednesday 31 October 2012 Victoria Smith Hello and good afternoon. My name is Victoria Smith and I am a recent graduate from Plymouth University where I have just completed my degree in Art History. Through the Young Explainers programme I have been working on my own, or within a small group, to research Charles Lock Eastlake’s era and the events that took place during his time in Plymouth, that we can use to shed light on a man who was born and grew up in this very city. I myself have been born and bred in Plymouth, but until undertaking this project I hadn’t known about the relationship the city had with Charles Eastlake and the National Gallery, or the Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte. This Art Bite will focus on Eastlake’s encounter with Napoleon Bonaparte, why Napoleon was in Plymouth and what the repercussions were of his being here in the city. Due to my lifelong connection with the city I know that Plymouth has played host to many dignitaries and famous individuals throughout its history. These range from Oliver Cromwell, Winston Churchill, the Beatles, Laurel and Hardy, Princess Diana, Charles Darwin and Horatio Nelson - just to name a few. For this talk we will focus on the year 1815; as in this year Plymouth Sound held captive a fugitive – a ‘fascinating monster’! The HMS Bellerophon, which had been converted from a 74 gun ship to a prison boat, dropped its anchor in Plymouth Sound on Wednesday July 26 th 1815, commanded by Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland. On board was none other than the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte who had been defeated and taken prisoner during the final stages of the Napoleonic Wars. The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts that spanned the years 1799 – 1815; these were events that were sparked off by the French Revolution of 1789 and the French leader Napoleon Bonaparte. The French Revolution endeavoured to liberate France from its political and socio-economic struggles. Money was tight, taxation was out of control and to add to that they had faced a bad harvest. These factors all contributed to the Revolution. Napoleon was a young general during the uprising, and after travelling with the army in a failed campaign to seize Egypt and Syria, he arrived back to lead the coup d'etat against the high directory in 1799. This was the event which let him step out of the crowd to effectively become the leader of France, the ‘First Consul’. With Napoleon now in command, the Revolution had come to an end, and France found itself under military rule for the next 15 years. The 15 year rule ended in 1815 when, as mentioned in the pop hit ‘Waterloo’ by ABBA, the Emperor Napoleon surrendered at the battle of Waterloo. This celebrated battle happened on Sunday 18 th of June 1815 and, with the French general’s defeat, it ended the twenty five years known as the Napoleonic wars. The battle of Waterloo took place in Brussels, Belgium between the combined force of the British, Germans, Belgians, Dutch and Prussians fighting against the French Grande Armée. The Duke of Wellington, Marshal Blucher and the Prince of Orange led their armies against the Emperor Napoleon. The victory made at Waterloo in 1815 left Britain as the most dominant power in Europe, with the Royal Navy ruling the waves as the strongest fleet in the world. The city of Plymouth has always had a thriving naval community. If we turn to look at the painting on my left, a painting by JWM Turner ‘Plymouth Dock from Mount Edgcumbe’; we can see sailors coming over a hill at Mount Edgcumbe, it could be inferred that they are rejoicing at being back on land or victory at sea. We can see behind them the prominent view of Devonport Dockyard in the distance. Returning again to Plymouth Sound in 1815, the Sherborne Mercury newspaper reported Napoleon’s reception. Although now stripped of his title of ‘Emperor’, the Mercury stated that: “Multitudes visited the Citadel and Hoe, endeavouring to obtain a glimpse of Napoleon. In his behaviour, it appears, he still affects the Emperor, considering himself, apparently, of as much importance as when, in Russia, he ordered a chateau, a village, or a town, to be set on fire, that he might warm his fingers” The ship settled in The Sound for two weeks whilst a decision was being made on Napoleon’s future. During this time the waters were littered with boats as the local people rowed out just to see a glimpse of the prisoner. He was now becoming quite a tourist attraction. The disorder, and the quantity of people who had paid to be taken out to see him, lead to the unfortunate loss of life of at least one, a man named John Boynes. In the graveyard of St Andrew and St Luke at Stoke Damerel is the memorial stone of Mr John Boynes which reads: 'To the Memory of John Boynes late Stone Mason of His Majesty's Dock Yard who was unfortunately drowned between the Island and Point returning from seeing Bonaparte in the Sound, [date indecipherable] July 1815, Aged 35 Years.' The desire to interact with the Emperor was strong, with one such story claiming that 'during [Napoleon’s] stay his linen was sent into Plymouth to be washed, and the fact that some of it was marked with an "N" and an imperial crown, and the rest with an "L" and the royal crown, led to the inference that the latter had been 'stolen from Louis'. This moral reflection did not disturb the residents of the town; they tried on the shirts in order that they might boast they had worn them!' The Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott who still ever present on modern day Scottish bank notes, vividly describes the public’s response to the news that Napoleon was a prisoner aboard the Bellerophon. He states – “That frenzy of popular curiosity, which predominating in all free states, seems to be carried to the utmost by the English nation, caused such numbers of boats to surround the Bellerophon, that notwithstanding the peremptory orders of the admiralty and in spite of the efforts of the man-of-war boats which maintained constant guard around the vessel, it was almost impossible to keep them at the prescribed distance of a cable length from the ship. They incurred the risk of being run down - of being as they might apprehend…” He carries on to say: “…shots from muskets were discharged for the purpose of intimidation.” However the public carried on with their attempt to view the captive not worried by the attempts to calm the crowd. He continues: “When he [Napoleon] appeared there was greeted with Huzzas (or as we would say today – ‘hoorays’ or ‘cheers’) which he returned with bows but could not help expressing his wonder at the eagerness of popular curiosity, which he was not accustomed to see in such a pitch of excitation.” The Plymothian, and Mayor of Plymouth 1813/14, Henry Woollcombe referred to Napoleon in his diary on numerous occasions. For instance, Woollcombe Diary: 28 July 1815: “I went off in a boat to the Bellerophon at 3 o’clock finding my brother and Mrs Woollcombe were going … certainly saw the man though imperfectly. At dinner others complained that the officers were showing Napoleon too much respect”. Napoleon usually appeared at about 6 pm at the gangway for the benefit of his nautical audience. Artists such as Charles Eastlake took advantage of this occasion. It allowed him to make rapid en plein air sketches of the general, helping develop his artistic skills. Eastlake was interested in this historic moment to indulge his artistic endeavours. Contemporary accounts indicate that Napoleon enjoyed posing for the curious sightseers as he held court on Plymouth Sound. One Naval Officer observed that he was close enough to him that Napoleon: “stood for about a quarter of an hour or more, and seemed to be amused by examining the extent of the crowd below him with an opera glass.” After seeing a sketch that Eastlake had produced of him, Napoleon came out to stand on deck while Eastlake painted from a nearby boat. Eastlake is documented to have painted three portraits of Napoleon, one of them full length, with numerous additional figures surrounding him. The small reproduction of this painting, 'Napoleon Bonaparte on Board the Bellerophon in Plymouth Sound' (1815), is what I stand beside. Although the painting can’t be seen within this exhibition in its full capacity, it is housed at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. These paintings have been labelled as Eastlake’s first success after he had trained as a painter for some years. Interestingly, he had begun his artistic training first at Plymouth itself, under Dr Bidlake at Plymouth Grammar School and with Samuel Prout, and then in London with another Plymouth painter, Benjamin Robert Haydon, in 1809, before being admitted as a probationer at the Royal Academy Schools in London. In Eastlake's painting, 'Napoleon Bonaparte on Board the Bellerophon in Plymouth Sound' (1815), a reflective Napoleon dominates the canvas as he looks beyond the viewer to long-term captivity. His right elbow leans below a Union flag underscoring British victory and his defeat, something I suspect Napoleon wouldn’t have been too keen on Eastlake depiction. Five Plymouth gentlemen paid the phenomenal sum of 1,000 guineas for the painting, which they then toured around the country. This sale gave Eastlake the money to set off for 14 years travelling around Europe learning about the Old Master painters.