St. Paul daily globe., 1890-07-13
EMPEROR NAPOLEON.
LIE Fevre's World-Renowned
Portrait Of the Little
Corporal.
How q Shrewd American
Stripped the Ere nch Of a
Great Treasure.
A Startling Intrigue With
Prominent officials Of
the Republic.
The Deal Neeessitated the Ex-
The Deal Neeessitated the Ex-
penditure Of a Cool no.
900 Francs.

Napoleon [. has ever been an Inter
eSting character to Americans. No
less interesting was he, perforce, to
Englishmen, and who can comprehend
the hero worship which lives for him in
France? A devil to Britons, he is all the
more sainted as demi-god by the
French. The remarkable character of
the man makes the features of his
eyentful life an interesting study for all
mankind. To Frenchmen ali that was
personal of the emperor is sanoti1ed,
and SO jealousy guarded are the mate
rial effects of his career that, with the
tact and exercise of the most ardent
connoisseurs and relic hunters. it has
been impossible to strip France of her
glorious possessions-the relics of Ma
poleon's court and campaigns.
That it was left to an American en-
thusiast to carry off what is conceded to
be one of the greatest of the Napoleonic
treasures is the purpose of my account.
In 1910, shortly after Napoleon formed
the conjugal alliance with Austria by his
marriage with Marie Louise, and while
the spirit of fresh adventure tinged his
acts, he personally commissioned
Robert Lefevre, who was then the
favorite painter of the French nobility,
to execute what he charged the artist
should be his masterpiece in portraiture.
Notwithstanding Bonaparte's aversion
to sitting for portraits, he agreed that it
should be from life and gave his promise
that be would pose attentively before
the canvas. At that time the master
brush of Lefevre had already execut-
ed two likenesses of the emperor,
which set all Bonapartists admiring.
This one, however, wa to be. by Napo-
Icons own entreaty, the coup de grace
in theory and subjective truth. The
Empress Marie Louise, then in the hope
of maternity, urged the emperor's
devotion to the picture until Lefevre
had finished his task.
In the month of March, 1911, when
Napoleon Ii. was born to the emperor
and Marie Louise, Lefevre having de-
clared his commission finished, the I'M
age, which, by the most critical judges,
was accepted as "a grand and respiring
hibIted to the favored ones at court.
1t is said that Napoleon was so attached
to the portrait that he carried it into
exile to Elba, and then to st. Helena,
where, In the decay Of his powers, it
served as a realistic lens to his retro
sbective meditation. In codicil which
Napoleon sealed during his life
in st. Helena, he bequeathed,
among numerous other things,
the Lefevre portrait of 1910, to Claude
A. g., Due Gle Choiseul, the foster rela-
tive of Duke Etienne Francois, and at
the outbreak of the Revolution the col
onel of the dragons. He escaped while
under sentence of death by the decree
of the directory. Napoleon, however, al
lowed him to return to France. At the
Restoration he was called to the house
of peers by Louis XVIII. for his 10y
atty to the royalists. In 1921, at Ma
poleon's death, by decree of the exile's
will, the famous portrait OF 1910 became
the most priced treasure of the curiOS
and fixtures of the house of the Due de
Choiseul. So valued was this new ac-
QUESTION to the Choiseul collection that
the addition was marked by private
banquet to the dignitaries of the war de-
partment and the heirs of Choiseul.
The Due de Choiseul, who finally re-
ceived from Louis Philippe the post of
aide-de-camp to the king and governor
of the Louvre, as an estimate of the
artists talent. caused Lefevre's cupid
Disarmed by Venus" to be placed in an
honored position in
That Great Sanctum
of master works. When the due died
in Paris in 1888 his heir, the Due de
Grevise and uncle OF the Comte la
Grange, became vested with an estate in
hi dr1o f,6 Il,
portrait succeeded to his nephew, vi
sides in Paris, and from whose estate
the portrait became an American prop
erty.
When Blucher left France he carried
off to England five portraits of Napo-
leon, all painted by different and aspir
ing artists, who persistently courted the
pose of the Little Corporal. AS
Frenchmen say: Blucher garbled them
across the straits of Dover for English
men to swear at. Blucher was critical
enough, however, to take away the best
pictures available in France. He must
have succeeded. for with the exception
of the portrait of 1910, Englishmen are
said to have the best likenesses Of their
hated enemy. And so for eighty
years the Lefevre portrait has
been held secure against the COW
etous siege of the Bonapartists,
the war department. of France, the
commissioners of Louis XVIII. and the
seurs of the world, who exhausted many
means to possess the idol of France on
canvas. Amid the chance Of fate, the
heirloom bequeated to the house of
Choiseul by the exiled Napoleon has
descended to the Viscomte &. de Beau
pleay, when American money and
American ingenuity took from off the
walls of the Chateau de NantalaiS a
Neudon the picture which was the
the pride of every Frenchman.
1t is now the property of t. B. Walk
er, of Minneapolis, MINI. Mr.. Walker
is the timber king of the Northwestern
states. With 100000 or more invested
in private collection Of acknowledged
masterpieces of the last three centuries,
| the liberal quality of his patronage
keeps him in constant search for the
best examples of old and modern mas
ters. He has drawn his interesting
stock from the four corners of the
| lists hold but a small representation in
! the Walker exhibit, this generous
contributor to the art expositions of
both continents is ever anxious to ac-
knowledge and support the achieve
ments of American artists. France.
Germany, Holland, England and
| America look down at you from the gal
lery walls in the Walker mansion, in
| their representatives-B Bre-
ton, Van Marcke, Lefevre, Dupre, Corot,
Bonheur, Troyon, Haman. Laurens,
Lerolle, Reynolds, Fortuny, Rousseau,
| Lorraine, Brown, COOmanS, Gain and
| many others of noted rank.
Being an admirer of Napoleon l.. Mr..
| Walker determined during his last
European tour to secure, if possible, at
any cost, the best portrait extant of the
emperor. This proved to be no easy
| task. However, the strategic nicely and
staunch loyalty to public and private
purpose so characteristic of Mr.. Walker
made success of what seemed vain
hope. Unable to reconcile his desire
to the purchase of some of the
less noted portraits of Napoleon
which hang in German castles and the
| Antwerp museum, Mr.. Walker went
to Paris in 1889, resolved to negotiate
for the famous portrait of 1910, which
| +IoH do 1ai G