Napoleon's Tomb

Horace Vernet's Napoleon's Tomb of 1821 depicts visitors at Napoleon's grave on Saint Helena, the remote South Atlantic island where he died in 1821, transforming the modest burial site into a site of pilgrimage and mourning. Napoleon had been dead only months when Vernet painted this, and the cult of his memory was already organizing itself around the tomb. The painting participates in the construction of Napoleonic martyrology that would drive the July Monarchy's return of his remains to Paris in 1840 — the political exploitation of a memory that never ceased generating popular emotion.

The small, intimate format and subdued palette of greens and browns create a mood of melancholy reflection. Vernet's precise rendering of the simple gravesite beneath the willows emphasizes the contrast between Napoleon's grandeur and his humble end.