Napoleon I Dictating his Memoirs to Count Las Cases on St. Helena, 1816

After his defeat at Waterloo in 1815, Napoleon was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic. Emmanuel, Count de Las Cases, was Napoleon's secretary. He recorded the former Emperor's memories and published them as a book in 1823. Here, Napoleon is seen gathering his thoughts while Emmanuel waits to write them down. The psychological tension created by the artist's use of empty space was praised by the critics at the Royal Academy when it was first exhibited.