Napoleon mit seinem Hut über ein Schlachtfeld reitend 1829

Auguste Raffet made this print of Napoleon on horseback, hat aloft, surveying a battlefield. It seems to depict Napoleon as the heroic leader of his men. But to understand its meaning, we must consider the image in its time. This print was made in France in the first half of the 19th century, decades after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo. During the Bourbon Restoration, it was difficult to publicly celebrate the Napoleonic era. But by the 1830s, memories of the Revolution and Napoleon were being revived. Artists like Raffet produced many prints which were relatively cheap and easily circulated, nurturing a myth of Napoleon as a democratic hero. Yet we might ask, how democratic was he, really? The image plays on a tension between Napoleon’s imperial ambitions and the radically egalitarian promise of the Revolution. Historical research can help us appreciate how such images shaped French political culture long after Napoleon’s death. The meaning of art is always shaped by its social and institutional context.