Pen Sketches of Napoleon I. [Album of 39 Mounted Pen and Ink Wash Drawings Chronicling Napoleon's Life]

(8 1/4 x 10 1/2 inches). 39 pen and ink wash drawings over graphite, with black ink borders, each mounted recto and verso onto the first twenty guarded cards, the drawings each approximately 4 x 5 1/2 inches, with ink manuscript captions in the artist's hand. Two of the drawings, numbers 36 and 37, use sepia wash. Many of the captions provide years for the events depicted. 22 blank cards complete the album. Nineteenth-century pebble-grained navy morocco paneled and tooled in gilt and blind, gilt-titling on upper board, with owner's monogram "W. F. H." in gilt on bottom board, four raised bands forming five richly gilt compartments on spine, gilt Greek key design running on board edges, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, with color-printed floral-patterned endpapers, binder's ticket of "E. Andersen / Roma / Legatore di Libri" on front free endpaper Charming album of 39 original ink wash drawings of iconic episodes in Napoleon's life, captioned by hand, in an extraordinary 19th-century fine binding. A dynamic album of memorable original drawings chronicling Napoleon's life, with an emphasis on his Italian campaigns. The lively drawings are united in their style and graphic weight, with interesting variations in the fluidity of line and the level of detail. Napoleonic events depicted herein include sieges and battles (Mantua, Lodi, Trebbia, Marengo); the signing of treaties (Campo Formio, Tolentino); the deaths of generals (Duphot, Joubert); and the royalist attempt to assassinate Napoleon with a "macchina infernale." Later scenes include the battles of Wagram, Ligny, and the catastrophic Waterloo, as well as Napoleon's final exile to St. Helena. An early bookseller's note on a preliminary blank identifies the 39 drawings present here as the work of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), which, though false, is not as laughable as it first appears. Though known for his finely rendered dramatic realism in oils, David's more casual sketches share more than a little resemblance to those in the present album. (See David's "View of the Campidoglio in Rome" at the Met.) The unknown Italian artist behind these Napoleonic tableaux was clearly a follower of David, and inspired by the grand mode of neoclassical French history painting: "Fine della giornata di Marengo," the 19th drawing in the album, expands a detail of a battle scene by Carle Vernet (1758-1836), and "Napoleone all' Isola de Lobau," the first drawing, echoes a painting by Charles Meynier (1768-1832). The 39 drawings were neatly mounted in the present album by E. Andersen, a Roman bindery active in the 1800s, known for producing lavish gift books for travelers on the Grand Tour. Interestingly, the person who originally commissioned the album, presumably the "W. F. H." of the bottom board's monogram, did not choose to have the scenes arranged chronologically. The viewer is hurtled from 1813 to 1797 to 1800 and back again, abruptly following Napoleon from Alexandria to Waterloo to Paris to Saint Helena, on battlefields and in council chambers, as if his life were flying by one's eyes. The drawings are captioned as follows: 1. Napoleone all' Isola di Lobau. 2. Morte del Duca de Montebello. 3. Battaglia di Wagram, 1809. 4. Resa di Montova, 1796. 5. Provera prigioniero, 1796. 6. Bonaparte Presidente della Repubblica Italiana. 7. Assassinio del Duca di Bery. 8. Napoleone in Vienna, 1809. 9. Napoleone Bonaparte relagato con pochi fuor fidi all' Isola Saint Elena. 10. L'Italia del Secolo XIX. 11. Battaglia di Lipsia nel 1813. 12. Feste Solemni in Milano, 1797. 13. Trattato di Campo Formio, 1797. 14. Uccizione del General Duphoth, 1798. 15. Magdonald alla Trebbia, 1799. 16. Concordato di Religione. 17. Bonaparte a Parigi, 1797. 18. Convenzione di Alessandria, 1800. 19. Fine della giornata di Marengo. 20. Consiglio dei Cinquecento, 1793. 21. Joubert a Novi e sua Morte, 1799. 22. Repubblica Cisalpina, 1797. 23. Spoglio degli oggetti d'arte, 1796. 24. Trattato di Tolentino, 1797. 25. Repubblica.…