Art as a tool for propaganda has been recognized by rulers since the earliest times. Pharaohs, Alexander the Great, and Roman leaders erected statues bearing their likenesses to constantly remind their subjects of their majestic form, their dignified nature, and their larger than life—at least their larger than the lives of their subjects—nature.
As soon as kingdoms created coins, leaders started stamping their images on them. Roman generals, not politically powerful enough to warrant stamping coins depicting their own images, would stamp their names on the coins they used to pay their troops.
It was Napoleon* who was the first to fully understand the potential of using the arts as a tool for propaganda, particularly via newspapers, paintings, and the theater. Napoleon not only followed the examples of previous effective leaders, but took advantage of new technology such as etchings and improved printing presses to maximize his efforts to sculpt exactly the message he wanted.
As Napoleon wrote, “To attach no importance to public opinion is a proof you do not merit its suffrage”.
From his earliest military victories, Napoleon carefully crafted his reports not only to cast himself in the best possible light with the powers that were, but to mold public opinion by publishing them in the newspapers, too. When several newspapers cast his exploits more factually than the general desired, Napoleon wrote the Directorate suggesting that the offending newspaper have its presses destroyed. When the Directorate proved slow to implement this suggestion, Napoleon used his troops to accomplish the task himself.
To more effectively ensure that he received good press, Napoleon started his own newspaper and after seeing how effective the tool was for shaping public morale, eventually founded and ran six such newspapers. Occasionally, the general even wrote the articles himself. (A century later, Porfirio Diaz, the most successful of the Mexican dictators, not only copied Napoleon’s idea of owning newspapers to control the press, but took the idea a step further by secretly owing the underground opposition papers.)
Napoleon was very careful of the power of French theaters, a traditional source of dissent disguised as comedy. During the years of Napoleon, the number of theaters decreased and those remaining had to be licensed, with strict limits on the number of days a performance could run. In addition, any new material had to be read by the Minister of Justice before it could be performed.
Napoleon took full advantage of such tried and true methods such as commissioning statues, placing his image on gold coins, on letterheads, and on a wide assortment of official documents. He also introduced the concept of medals commemorating military victories, to be sold to the public. Napoleon eventually even controlled architecture and art, implementing an offshoot of the classical style, that was known as Empire and was named after the Napoleon’s First Empire.
For centuries, the paintings political leaders commissioned could be seen only by those fortunate enough to be allowed to tour royal palaces. Artists so famous that their very names are synonymous with their countries today, were almost unknown while they were alive because there was no effective method of reproducing and disseminating their art. At best, small collections of their art could be painstakingly copied by apprentices and loosely bound together, to be sold as expensive ‘copy books’ for other artists.
With the advent of copper plate engravings, artwork could be more easily copied and the metal engraved plates could be used countless times to make enough copies of the art that far more artists and patrons could see images of important paintings. Napoleon was quick to take advantage of this medium, supporting multiple artists, the most influential of whom was Jacques-Louis David.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in the painting, Napoleon at the Saint Bernard Pass. The original painting by David was commissioned by Carlos IV, the King of Spain, who was trying desperately to reestablish relations with his militarily stronger neighbor to the north. When Napoleon learned of the painting, he commissioned David to make four more copies of it, each slightly different (most noticeably in the colors of the horses). Those five paintings have traveled extensively due to various wars, the original being seized by Napoleon’s brother Joseph when he was (briefly) the King of Spain. With the fall of Emperor Napoleon, Joseph fled to the United States, taking the painting with him. Today, the original and two of the copies are back in France, while the remaining two paintings are on display in Vienna and Berlin.
Unfortunately, like many such stories, it’s total nonsense. Oh, Napoleon certainly led his troops over the Alps in winter, and it was certainly a brilliant strategic move, but it was nothing like the scene David painted. A more accurate version, but one not nearly so stirring, is Bonaparte crossing the Alps by Paul Delaroche in 1848.
Painted 27 years after Napoleon’s death, Delaroche was safe to paint a more accurate version. Though the artist admired the late emperor, he portrayed Napoleon in a plain wool coat, obviously suffering. His face is unmistakably downcast and visibly sad from the cold, miserable journey and he’s leading his men across the snow-covered mountains while riding a mule led by a peasant.
Today, after decades of television and movies, a more sophisticated audience instantly recognizes the theatrical artificiality of David’s version of the crossing and that it is Delaroche’s painting that conveys a sense of who Napoleon really was.
*Yes—I’ve written yet another blog about Napoleon…and I’ll probably write more.
Napoleon would have been hard for me to work for as a public relations officer. I've always been able to spin press releases and interviews to tell the story I wanted to tell, and managed a couple of PR crises for organizations I worked for, but it was always a true story. I tried my hand at marketing for one of those miracle cure outfits, but learned that I didn't have a knack for overblown B.S.. I made the copy more accurate and believable, but the client was unhappy with it. So I withdrew at some cost to my pocketbook. To do the kind of PR work someone like Napoleon, Bill Clinton our Joe "Golden Lips" Biden, I find myself unable to write at that level of duplicity. It would have been hell to be one of Nappy's newspaper editors. Hell, I'd have hated to be the one to have painted that first picture, although it does make him look like a prize sissy boy.
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