Very Large Painting of Napoleon in Exile

Huge painting in oil on canvas of Napoleon Bonaparte in exile measuring 8 feet in length! The deposed Emperor is shown in the dining room of Longwood house on the island of St Helena to where he was exiled in 1815 and where he would live out the rest of his days, dying on the island in 1821. Watched by his companions (several generals accompanied him into exile as well as his butler Cipriani) Napoleon sits brooding on the past, his maps and plans laying strewn on the floor beside him, his famous hat on the sideboard the only sign of his previous military splendour. Note the green walls of the room, arsenic in the green wallpaper of Longwood House was long rumoured to be the cause of the Emperor's early death. Painted in a simple graphic style in oil on canvas, signed J.Laenen (Jean Laenen. Belgian 1881-1965) in the lower right hand corner. Presented as found with a few small holes and areas of damage, unframed on a simple wooden stretcher.