The frigate "La Muiron" landing at Ajaccio with Bonaparte in October 1799

Napoleon selected twenty-eight subjects for the painted Sèvres porcelain plates of the famous Headquarters service, fifteen of which were related to directly to the Egyptian Expedition. Some of the plate scenes were reproductions of engravings in Vivant Denon's Voyage dans la haute et la basse Egypte, notably, the Miqyâs in Cairo, a view of the Pharos in Alexandria and that here showing the frigate “La Muiron” landing at Ajaccio with Bonaparte in October 1799. In his book, Denon gives a precise account of this episode in the return from Egypt, remarkable for the fact that it was to be Napoleon's last visit to his island birthplace, before heading on shortly afterwards to Fréjus:

“Corsica at length offered us the first sight of a friendly shore, and a brisk wind brought us to Ajaccio, where we sent in a boat to gain the latest intelligence concerning France, and to enquire whether there were any hostile squadrons on our coasts. While we were lying to for the boat, a sudden squall obliged us to come to anchor in the gulf, in the native country of Bonaparte. He was thought to have been lost, when chance thus brought him home: nothing could be more touching than the reception that he experienced; the batteries saluted on all sides; the whole population rushed to the boats and surrounded our boats. I looked everywhere for Madame Bonaparte. I pictured the emotion, the tears, the immense happiness of a mother suddenly finding her son returned to her, and what a son! But when I learned that she was not in Ajaccio, this brilliant reception became to my eyes just pride and noise, and I set about making a sketch of the fine scene.”

The drawing in question, entitled View of Ajaccio in Corsica, is today held by the British Museum in London and was engraved by Giuseppe Pera. This print was the model used by the painter Jean-François Robert for the plate in Emperor's service. During the Empire however this scene was given an erroneous title “View of Fréjus with a frigate and two smaller vessels arriving”. This was indeed what Napoléon had asked for, but the scene on the plates is certainly that of the arrival in Ajaccio. As for the frigate «La Muiron» on which Napoleon returned to France from Egypt, it became an object almost of veneration, the emperor himself being the initiator of the cult.

The engravings after the sketches which Denon made in Egypt were a constant source of inspiration for the artists at the Sèvres manufactory. Not only were they reproduced on the plates of the Headquarters service, they were also to appear on the “Egyptian cabaret” service made either for Napoleon or Josephine. 
 
Karine Huguenaud (tr. P.H.)

For further information on the Emperor's Headquarters service, see the article by Bernard Chevallier in “Masterpieces of the Fondation Napoléon Collection”
 
June 2009