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Napoleon's Return from Elba
Artist	Charles de Steuben
Year	1818
Type	Oil on canvas, history painting
Dimensions	97 cm × 128.5 cm (38 in × 50.6 in)
Location	Private collection

Napoleon's Return from Elba (French: Retour de Napoleon d' Isle d'Elbe) is an 1818 history painting by the German-born French artist Charles de Steuben. It depicts the scene at Laffrey near Grenoble on 7 March 1815 when Napoleon, having escaped from Elba, is acclaimed by the men of the 7th Regiment of the Line. Then in the army of Louis XVIII, the regiment led by Charles de la Bédoyère, defected en masse to Napoleon's cause. Napoleon had approached them and challenged them to shoot him. Their rallying to him was a significant milestone on Napoleon's triumphant march on Paris, launching the Hundred Days campaign. Charles de la Bédoyère was later executed following the defeat of Napoleon's at the Battle of Waterloo and the Allied Occupation of Paris. By the time the painting was produced, Napoleon was in exile on the Atlantic island of Saint Helena in the custody of the British Army. It has been described as a "superb - and wildly unrealistic - piece of artistic propaganda".

References

1. Bell p.3
2. Blanning p.86
3. Muir p.22-23

Bibliography

• Bell, David A. Napoleon: A Concise Biography. Oxford University Press, 2015.
• Blanning, T.C.W. The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern Europe. OUP, 2001.
• Esdaile, Charles. Napoleon, France and Waterloo: The Eagle Rejected. Pen and Sword, 30 Nov 2016.
• Muir, Rory. Wellington: Waterloo and the Fortunes of Peace 1814–1852. Yale University Press, 2015.

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