Skip to page navigation menu Skip entire header
Brown University
Skip 13 subheader links

Nap omnipotent, or the acme of arrogance and presumption

Description

Abstract:
This image is one of a series depicting the events that led to Napoleon's eventual failure in his Russian Campaign. An envoy from Alexander I of Russia (l.) meets with Napoleon (r.) under the center swag of an ornate canopy. This tent is located in the countryside at the site of a French camp. There Napoleon and the envoy are joined by French soldiers, center, right, and left, and by Russian soldiers on the far left. Negotiations for peace have failed and the envoy acknowledges that they must take their chances on the battlefield and leave the outcome up to God. In response Napoleon brags that he will have victory over Russia. Napoleon's secretary records the meeting at his desk and comments that Napoleon's pride is "un peu trop...a great deal."
Notes:
Dialogue: Russian envoy: "The dictates of humanity will not prevail/ we must take the chance of war! But remember/ Man proposes, but God disposes." Napoleon: "T'is false no man proposes to me, and I/ dispose of events, your master has Offended/ me and I hurl him from his throne." Napoleon's secretary: "ma foi c'est dire un/ peut trop! t'is say a great deal."
Inscription: Pubd may 1813 by Thos. Tegg 111 Cheapside, Price 1/colored.
Inscription: Vide Russian Campaign, Plate 4
Plate Mark: 198
Verse: Who knows himself a Braggart/ Let him fear this, for it will come to pass/ That every Braggart shall be found an Ass.

Access Conditions

Rights
No Copyright - United States
Restrictions on Use
Collection is open for research.

Citation

"Nap omnipotent, or the acme of arrogance and presumption" (1813). Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Napoleonic Satires. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. https://repository.library.brown.edu/studio/item/bdr:232038/

Relations

Collections:

  • Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection

    This vast digital collection of military artwork from the 16th through 20th centuries, vividly documents all aspects of military and naval history, with emphasis on the history and illustration of world military and naval uniforms from the 17th century to …
    ...
  • Napoleonic Satires

    The Napoleonic satires housed in the Anne S. K. Brown Military collection of the John Hay Library represent several important gifts made to the library in the 20th century. In addition to the Napoleonic satires located in the military collection …

    ...