Introduction to the Russian caricatures of Napoleon in the Curzon Collection, Bodleian Library
By Dr Marina Peltzer

The Bodleian Library’s Curzon collection offers a panoramic vision of pro- and anti- Napoleonic caricature, including, unusually, a selection of Russian caricatures, invaluable to any student of the genre. It is difficult to imagine a better record of the war of images that raged across Europe. The unprecedented programmatic unity of that satirical imagery was matched by an originality of vision of the artists and the affirmation of distinctive national identities. What emerged from this was a distinctively modern form of political caricature. This process is illustrated by the play with Napoleon’s icon, distorted or not, but never interchangeable and always bearing the individual cartoonist’s stamp. The supreme irony was reached by the international “corpse-head”, reviving G. Arcimboldo’s manner and brilliantly incrusting Napoleon’s infamy within his classical portrait. Widespread in numerous adaptations all over Europe, this ancestor of Dorian Gray’s picture was first created by the Henschel brothers in Berlin in 1813, in parallel with an original Moscow version on the same theme.

Russia’s participation in this movement was remarkable and was seen to lend the satires an international aura, as attested by the acknowledged copies of Russian images published in other countries. The eminent scholars A.M. Broadley and M. Dorothy George even extended these claims to certain genuine English or German caricatures. What makes this phenomenon all the more striking is the novelty of the genre in Russian culture – the tempting political reading of some eighteenth-century symbolic and popular prints remains indeed highly controversial. How to explain the sudden enthusiasm in Europe for Russian publications? The rebuff to Napoleon’s Russian campaign and the unfailing optimism of Russian caricaturists re-ignited in 1813 the flame of a hope that had nearly guttered out in Europe. Russian heroes supplanted home-grown champions; the Cossack, symbol of supreme bravery, animated publications throughout Europe.

The thirty Russian cartoons in the Curzon Collection are indicative of the prints favoured by collectors. From the collection of the Grand-Dukes Nikolai and Mikhail Mikhailovich, grandsons of Nicholas I, they passed into the hands of A.M. Broadley, whose collection was built initially from the sale of W. Fraser in 1901 and augmented by the finds of the Parisian art dealer Godefroy Mayer. Broadley’s collection was finally sold in 1916 to George, Marquis Curzon of Kedleston (1859-1925) who bequeathed it to the Bodleian Library.

The Curzon items account for more than 10% of the total of Russian anti-Napoleonic caricatures and offer a good cross-section of Russian satires from the period. To be sure, the popular Muscovite style of caricature, inaugurated in a publication of 13 July 1812 by F.V. Rostopchin, and which accounted for about a fourth of the Russian caricatures of the period, is not represented, never having received the interest it deserved from collectors and scholars until our own times.

In the Curzon prints, the palm of victory always belongs to the Russian peasant, distinguished by his moral values, guarantors of an empire ruled by divine right. A close second to him is the Cossack, symbol of Russian invincibility. These two are the standard bearers of patriotic glory, national unity, and Russian supremacy. This iconographic program defended a war of religion against evil, incarnated by Napoleon and his megalomaniac folly, his cruelty, deceit, and cowardice. Identified with Nero by the burning of Moscow (according to the official version of events at the time) or as the child of Satan or the Antichrist, he metamorphosed also into a Jewish elder or a Catholic prelate (e.g. in Curzon b.8(198), “Triumphal entry of N… into Paris with toys” ; or Curzon b.8(203), “The conqueror of the world leaves Russia in a bass case”), and, once, into a rabbit scampering away from the scene. On the contrary, the allegories of Russia emphasized the nobility of the people and never included the “Russian bear” promoted in European images. Russian imagery was characterised by mordant irony and a zest for humanity, for instance in Curzon b.8(199), “Hospitality, an excellent feature of the Russian people’s character”. The Russian prints forbore from assailing Napoleon after his abdication in April 1814, instead showing a rare magnanimity toward the fallen enemy. The caricatures however dwelt with jubilation on Napoleon’s flight from Moscow, his inadequate winter quarters, and the grotesque “Joyous Entry” into Paris on his return, a vivid contradiction of his famously overoptimistic bulletins, the official line undercut by artists who were inspired largely by the Russian press, above all the “Syn Otechestva” (The Son of the Fatherland), to which some of the cartoons refer, e.g. Curzon b.8(177), “Heroic determination of an octogenarian.”

The internationalisation of caricature in this period did not signify that public opinion across Europe was unanimous. Russian images cultivated the art of flattering their audience, and the soubriquet “Vavila the Frost” (who appeared in “The Russian moujik Vavila the Frost on a hare hunt”), for the vigorous peasant exterminator of the French army, was a pointed irony on the supposed responsibility of the cold alone for the debacle, a claim made in Napoleon’s 29th bulletin and repeated by the chorus of other European caricaturists.

Importantly, the dating of images, made possible by publication announcements in the press and by permissions of the censor, allows us to detect a continuation of this programme throughout the period: the threat of a new invasion in 1813 and the uncertainties of the German campaign were exorcised by constant references to the victory of 1812. The body of the Curzon collection, which is in an optimal state of conservation, is partially composed of later impressions, from 1815 to 1818 judging by the watermarks. This is the case for Curzon b.8 (166) printed 1812, Curzon b.8(183) printed 1815, and Curzon b.8(174) printed 1818. The reissues also include the water-colour tones of the original etchings.

These designs were the products of the artistic elite of St. Petersburg who tried their hand at political imagery. In a neo-classical style, and mostly anonymous, they suggest a defined and concerted program on the part of the authors and editors. The sculptor I.I. Terebenev, in a new guise as a political caricaturist, was monopolised at first by the editor I.P. Glazunov, who exported his vision of the Russian campaign, and then by I.V. Slionin who launched him on international politics. Resolutely Russophile, but modern enough to encourage the use of prophylactics, I.I. Zaikin attracted into his circle the history painter I.F. Tupylev, the brilliant illustrator I.A. Ivanov, the portraitist I.V. Bugaevskii-Blagodarnyi, the academic engraver A.G. Ukhtomskii, all affiliated with the circle of A.N. Olenin, their knowledgeable mentor and himself the creator of a well-known image already mentioned. The caustic work of S.P. Chiflard, a versatile artist of French origin, was launched by V.A. Plavil’shchikov. This panorama of Russian masters of satire lacks only the work of A.G. Venecianov, free-lance caricaturist and leading genre painter, and the soft-ground etchings attributed to the landscape painter A.E. Martynov.

A few very interesting images in the “Russian” section of Broadley’s extra-illustrated work are so far unknown in the armoury of Russian anti-Napoleonic publications, and should be considered as marginal to this category.

These are 1) the anonymous watercolour, Curzon b.8(162), without text, showing a grotesque image of the Emperor stigmatising his illegitimacy and his decline. Crowned with a sort of chamber-pot ornamented with a tricolour cockade matching the braces of his breeches, Napoleon is shown in shirtsleeves and wearing a white cape with gold feather trim and epaulettes matching his cummerbund. Holding a flail and fork in the style of a sceptre and sword, he sports a Legion of Honour formed out of crossed cutlery. In its typology and in the features of Napoleon, this original design recalls the work of the principal Dutch caricaturist, William Esser, who was also an art dealer in The Hague.

2) The vividly coloured caricature, Curzon b.8(167), in which, against a sunset background, Napoleon, with a bunch of twigs in his hand, rides a black crayfish (symbol of retrograde movement) and exhorts it to “Advance!” against a Cossack in full gallop, whose provenance is specified by the legend “Norden”: the Cossack is both menacing (he shakes his fist at Napoleon) and gay (he laughs “ha ha ha”). This, probably an etching by the Leipziger C.G.H. Geissler, who also contributed to Russian caricature, should be classified among the German anti-Napoleonic caricatures, along with the cruder and smaller-sized variant, Curzon b.8(168), recording the Allied occupation of Paris in March 1814, above the simple caption “Hura!”.

3) Last but not least, an extraordinary watercolour sketch, Curzon b.8(193), presents in a tragi-comic style Napoleon’s abandonment of his army, leaving them prey to the cold and ravening wolves. An engraved version is not known, and the expressive and personal style may suggest a link with one of the popular Muscovite caricaturists. However, the watermark – Britannia in a crowned oval and the words “L. Munn/ Kent/ 1810” – indicates decisively that this drawing was an English production.

In all, the Russian corpus of the Curzon collection allows us to appreciate the interest and importance of this political imagery that marked a milestone in the history of Russian caricature and set the standard for future productions. If the achievement of popular sovereignty remained elusive outside of England, nevertheless an admiration for the people, proclaimed with conviction by Russian artists and for demagogic purposes by official propaganda, paved the way for a changed mentality that would end in the liberation of the serfs in 1861.

Items referred to in the text: