The Island of St Helena 1731

George Lambert made this painting of the Island of St. Helena in the 18th century. It depicts a somewhat softened and romanticized view of this remote British outpost, sitting in the middle of the South Atlantic. What interests me about this painting is the history it leaves out. St. Helena, while an important trading post for the British East India Company, would later serve as a prison. Looking at this painting through a contemporary lens, it's impossible not to consider the island's role as the site of Napoleon Bonaparte's final exile and death. The ships that Lambert paints with such neutral tones represent the military might that imprisoned Napoleon in 1815. As an art historian, it is my job to look at the social conditions and institutional contexts that shaped artistic production. In Lambert's time, St. Helena represented Britain's global power. Later it represented the fall of a European empire. Historical context is critical when interpreting art.