Napoleon Pardoning the Rebels at Cairo

1808 · Musée National du Château, Versailles

historical

Guérin's Napoleon Pardoning the Rebels at Cairo has a grain of truth, since Napoleon had shown clemency to the Mamluk leaders of the 1798 rising - but only after the slaughter of most of the insurgents. Guérin burnishes Napoleon's myth subtly, placing his hero to the rear and rather dwarfed by those he has pardoned, in a sort of inverted modesty. If the rebels are allowed dignity in defeat, it is to emphasize the magnanimity of the victor.

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About the Artist

Pierre-Narcisse Guérin

1774 – 1833

One of the most successful French painters of his period. He won the Prix de Rome in 1797, and his later successes included becoming director of the French Academy in Rome in 1822 and being created a baron in 1829. His style was derived mainly from David, but his scenes from classical history and mythology are less severe and more stagey. As the teacher of Géricault and Delacroix amongst others, he was an important figure in the transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism . He laid particular emphasis on the painted sketch and as a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts, he was instrumental in establishing a sketch competition as a preliminary to the Prix de Rome.

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