In July 2016 taxidermists finished working on restoring a stuffed horse - the last one ridden by Napoleon Bonaparte.
Le Vizir was a gift to
Napoleon, given to him in 1802 by Selim III, the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, a
former adversary. The stallion was rigorously trained at the
imperial stables, as were many of the 130 horses that Napoleon rode during his
14-year campaigns, some of whom included the famous Marengo (pictured in Jacques-Louis
David’s painting, Napoleon Crossing the Alps) and Mourad Bey.
Though he was often painted on horseback, charging courageously into
battle, in reality, Napoleon was not a very accomplished rider. Born
on the island of Corsica, he didn’t sit a horse regularly until the start
of his military career, when he continued to prefer small, docile
horses for his mounts.
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| Taxidermists at work |
Le Vizir fit the bill, and
became a quick favorite of the emperor’s, who branded him with a crown and his
imperial “N”. Napoleon rode the stallion in the Battle of Jena
in Prussia, the Battle of Eylau in Russia, and on campaign in Poland
before he accompanied the emperor on his year-long exile in Elba
in 1814.
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| Napoleon's brand |
Napoleon died in 1821, but
le Vizir outlived his owner by five years, passing away at the ripe old age
of 33 in 1826. His remains were preserved by taxidermists in the same year
by order of Léon de Chanlaire, a stable officer who sent le Vizir’s
hide on to England for protection when anti-Napoleon sympathies in France
reached their zenith. The stallion was displayed at the Manchester Museum
in 1843, but later returned to France, where he went in
and out of favor with the rise and fall of Napoleon III. Eventually, Le
Vizir wound up in storage at the Louvre, where he remained for nearly
30 years before he was rediscovered and moved to Paris’s Musée de l’Armée.
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| Le Vizir Restored |
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