Pardon for the Rebels of Cairo, Egypt, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827

An original antique lithograph from Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827, lettered "PARDON ACCORDÉ AUX REVOLTÉS DU CAIRE" in open capitals above the image. Napoleon sits a pale gray horse at the center, turned toward a crowd of townsmen at the left, some kneeling, one bowed to the ground and others with hands clasped in supplication, while a robed elder in a tall cap speaks for them. A French grenadier with a pack stands at the far left and a helmeted dragoon rides beside the general. At the right a field gun stands with its crew and a line of grenadiers in bearskins, and a dome and a minaret rise behind the crowd.

The script caption below the image reads: "Les revoltés obtiennent de la clémence du G.l en chef le pardon qu ils implorent." In English: The rebels obtain from the clemency of the general in chief the pardon they beg for. No scene number or printer's line is lettered on this sheet.

The plate comes from the first volume of Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827 by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, the press of Marcellin Jobard, which the title page names as publisher and owner. The title page describes a text written by a society of men of letters from new documents dictated and corrected by Napoleon himself at Saint Helena, and plates lithographed by Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877) after the first painters of the French school.

The revolt of Cairo of 21 and 22 October 1798 was put down by French troops and artillery, with heavy loss of life in the city. In its aftermath a number of the leaders were executed, while Bonaparte proclaimed his clemency to the rest of the population, and the plate shows the second half of that policy as the book presents it.

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