Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

Jean LEPAGE
French 1746–1834
Napoleon’s hunting rifle
Fusil de chasse de Napoléon Ier
Empire period 1804–15
Walnut (Juglans sp.), silver, gold, iron, steel, leather
Fondation Napoléon, Paris
Donation Lapeyre inv.1111
Jean Lepage, ‘Gunsmith to the Emperor’,
provided all of Napoleon’s hunting rifles. This
rifle is especially significant. After Waterloo,
when a naval lieutenant, Jean Victor Besson,
had successfully organised a plan for the
Emperor to escape to the United States,
Napoleon changed his mind at the last
moment, preferring instead to surrender to
the English. On 14 July 1815, Napoleon
handed this gun to Besson, saying: ‘I have
nothing else in the world to offer you, my
friend. Please take this as a reminder of me’.
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