Bonaparte at Lonato, the Eight Minute Ultimatum, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827

An original antique lithograph from Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered "BONAPARTE A LONATO" in open capitals above the image. In front of an awning slung from the branches of a large tree, Bonaparte stands right of center, a lowered sword in one hand, pointing with the other toward an officer in a white coat who stands at the left, hat in hand, beside an officer in a bicorne. Officers of the general's staff are gathered at the right, seated figures show at the far right edge, and soldiers with shouldered muskets and a column of troops fill the plain at the left.

The caption in script below the image reads: "Dites à votre général que si dans 8 minutes il n'a pas posé les armes, je ne fais grâce à personne." In English: "Tell your general that if he has not laid down his arms within 8 minutes, I will spare no one." No scene number or imprint is lettered on the sheet.

The plate comes from Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827 by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, the press of Marcellin Jobard, who is named on the title page as publisher and proprietor. The title page describes a text written by a society of men of letters from the new documents dictated and corrected at Saint Helena by Napoleon himself, and a work illustrated with plates lithographed by Madou after painters of the French school: Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877), the Belgian lithographer and later painter. This is the first volume, which follows Napoleon from his schooling at Brienne to the camp of Boulogne.

The episode belongs to the fighting around Lonato, southwest of Lake Garda, in early August 1796, when Bonaparte was holding off the Austrian columns of Wurmser's army coming down on both sides of the lake. A detached Austrian force came upon Lonato while Bonaparte was there with only a small force, and sent an officer to summon him to surrender. The words on the sheet are his reply, and the column laid down its arms.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.