The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-02-08
NAPoLEoN's BEST PORTRAIT.
1t Is Owned by j. C. Ropes of Boston
Recently Shown in Baltimore.


BALTIMORE, Feb. Sin the historical de-
partment Of Johns Hopki S University, Dr..
Adams recent lecture on "Waterloo" was
illustrated and supplemented in d most in
teresting manner. After he had slovu
graphically by a diagram how Napoleon
had los the battle at Waterloo through ac-
cident, Gardiner G. Hubbard of Wasning-
ton, president of the American Geograp Il
cal Society, displayed a collection of about
fifty very fine etchings and engravingS If
portraits of Napoleon and otter prOmi-
| nent persons connected with this momen-
tous era of the worlds history. They
were all finished in the best manner
and copied after the original paint gs
There were several of Louis XVI. and MS
wife Marie Antoinette. In one Of the II the
Queen was dressed in ancient costume to
| represent a vestal virgin. Two others,
! placed side by side in their touching con-
| trest, option zed the vast upheaval of So
! ciety in the French revolution and illus
trated the morni e of glory and the evening
of WretcnedneS' and darkness in tn life of
the unfortunate woman. In one, as the
monarch's wife, she is the head of society in
the gayeSt capital of Europe, with her re-
gal robes flowing arou d her and look of
queenly dignity in her face In the other,
in the simp.e dress of an ordinary French
woman, with calm, trusting faith in her
execution.
The earliest genuine portrait of Napo-
leon, and one af the best, acco ding to Mr..
j. G. Ropes Of Boston, represents him in the
| battle of ArcOle, one of his first great vic
tories, when be was not quite q years old.
The next shows him in the midst Of his
troops in Egypt, when in dramatic way
be points to the towering pyramids aud
calls on his soldiers to remember that forty
centuries look down on them from those
heights Of stone. L. was about this time
that celebrated French painter invited
Napoleon to see a picture in which
the central figure was Junat, one
of the marshals Nopoleol said
it was not a good subject. "What
shall | take then for subj ct" asked the
painter Take me-" answered the vain
conqueror, las visiting the soldiers in the
hospitals at Jatfan 1t was done, and Ma
pol on is seen ia the ceuter walking through
the hospital touching the pIague-stricke
wretch-s, while his officers come behind,
breathing through their bandkerChiefs and
shrinking from any contact even Of dress
with the mi cradle sick. As in irony Of
fate, the next en- craving discloses Napoleon
real plague, Admiral Nelson, who drove
the French flag from the seas and made the
inyasi n of the soil of England impossible.
The other etchlngS represent Napoleon on
hi momentous passage Of the Alps. In the
first he appears Oh horseback, climbing
over the steep, rocky path, while a poo
peasant walks alongside and eloquentiy
tells bow hard poverty keeps him from
marrying the girl be loves, A few DAYS
after he is astonished at eceiving a small
farm and sum Of money. The great ar
list, David, painted the second, from which
the engraving is copied, with Napoleon's
horse rearing. This was done a. the in
stance of Napoleon, WAC put on the COS
"a al
horse and had him TO rear and paw the air,
SO that David might see how he wished 1t
to be done The third IS probably truest to
nature. Napoleon is on horseback, obliv
Gus of the keen, cold wind whisth & about
him, thinking of the victories that await
him beyond the rocky barriers, while his
officers behind him are shivering and ours
ing the bitter cold.
After seyeral Lattle scenes, one with Ma
poleon at AusterlitZ, his grea est success,
come the ctures that represent him TAX
ing those .teps t at are strangely connected
with the decline Of his power. First he ap-
pears with Josephine when his affection for
her Is too strong 70 admit Of separation for
motives OF state policy. Then be is seen III
a gorgeous chamber Of the palace telling
her Of the decision that dema ids they shall
part. The new wife from Austria, Maria
Louisa, fills the next chapter OF this pcto-
rial biography. The horrors Of the Russian
campaign are summed up IN The passage or
the river Beresina, whore the bridges break
down der the ret eating French, the ice
splits and parts under the Russian cannon
balls that fall on it, d desperate fugtives
perish by thousands in the swiftly running
water, and the closer shots Of their pur-
suers.
On high, barren point Of rock the exiled
emperor stands looking out over the dresry
waste Of waters beating around his solitary
island home. Then his features, in tie re-
pose Of death, his tomb, in the quiet, green
little valley with the weeping willows over
it, and at the last, tall. grim and erect,
stands the Iron Duke. Wellington, the last
conqueror Of Napoleon.
Four Of his portraits placed in a row
make fine objective LESION # the cha ges
through which Napoleon went from man
hood 10 death. First, he is seen a slender
young man, his countenance az .ow with
fire and vigor as he moves on t. battle at
Arcole; thea stout, round figure at the
summit Of his 20 ser, mastsrful and grand
then almost obese as be sits after his abdica-
ton at Foutalnebleau, contemplating what
the future has in store for him; then at last
quiet in death, with his cheeks slightly
shrunken, making an ideally beautiful pic
ture.