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The Translation of the Arch-Imperator , (H. Durand-Brager: Sainte-Hélène, 1844 / C. N. Lemercier: Translation du corps de Napoleon, ca.1842)

Special Artist Henri Durand-Brager had made a name for himself with an opulent documentation of the return of the remains of Napoleon I from foreign, British occupied soil to his homeland. Brager´s expedition report Sainte-Hélène was published in an impressive folio format in 1844. What is remarkable, is that the cycle completely disregards the actual subject-matter, the emperor´s coffin and the pivotal act of transporting it back. In the lithographic accordion-fold in which the befriended illustrator Charles Nicolas Lemercier recorded the subsequent procession of the corpse from the Champs-Élysées to the new grave at Les Invalides this coffin quite naturally forms the magnetic centre.

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