Bonaparte and the British: prints and propaganda in the age of Napoleon

Excellent exhibition at the British Museum looking at how prints were used to promote the various views of Napoleon in England. Although the view was mainly negative, and this was the great age of caricature with Rowlandson, Cruikshank and Gillray, many people in Britain also admired Napoleon, particularly in his early career.

I had needed a good history on Napoleon in this the 250th anniversary year of the Battle of Waterloo and this show provided it. It went through his life story telling it through the prints and cartoons of the time. It was a great visual treat but also have a clear narrative and a well told story.

The show was full of ‘fancy that’ moments. I loved the idea of a re-enactment of the Battle of the Nile at Sadler’s Well with real water, represented by a post for the event. Where can I get tickets?! Did you know there was an assassination attempt on Napoleon on his way to the premier of Haydn’s Creation in Paris?

I loved the sections which looked at the periods of peace with France when within month’s British tourists started returning to Paris, we just can’t keep away. One French print shows a thin British man arriving in Paris and his leaving pushing his stomach in a wheelbarrow!

Favourite image? Gillray’s “The Hand Writing Upon the Wall”, roughly based on the Rembrandt picture, which shows a great feast overseen by Napoleon and Josephine with the table covered in dishes shaped like British buildings. The picture was actually described by Cobbett!

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