George SAND invites DELACROIX to the return of NAPOLEON's ashes.

[Eugène DELACROIX] George SAND (1804.1876)

Autographed letter signed to Eugène Delacroix.

One page in quarto. Autograph address.

Missing on the 4th ^page , without affecting the text.

[Paris, December 14, 1840]

" We have two tickets for the inside of Les Invalides. [...] Mourning is the order of the day."

George Sand invited Delacroix to attend the ceremony for the return of Napoleon I's ashes ^to Les Invalides.

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“My dear friend, we have two tickets for the interior of Les Invalides. Maurice will collect them and bring them to you tomorrow morning, and you will go together. Cars will be able to travel there tomorrow, following the police route we also have. Maurice will therefore be at your place at 8:30. Mourning is required. We will bring crepe for both of you. – I think we should arrive around 10:00. If you don't have the patience to wait, at least you will see the church. Good evening, don't get run over, and have fun if you can. Yours sincerely, George. If you don't want to go, have your maid tell Maurice to go for a walk .”

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Napoleon died on Saint Helena on May 5, 1821, and was buried on the British island where his remains lay for nineteen years. In a codicil written on April 16, 1821, the Emperor had requested to be buried in French soil. It was in 1840 that King Louis-Philippe obtained the return of his body from England.

On December 15, 1840, a bitter cold gripped Paris. Nevertheless, thousands of French people thronged the Champs-Élysées to welcome the monumental hearse, over ten meters high, that carried the fallen Emperor to his final resting place. Amidst incredible popular enthusiasm, the procession slowly descended the most beautiful avenue in the world. Bells tolled, drums beat wildly, cannons roared, and cries erupted from the crowd: "Long live the Emperor!".

The chariot, drawn by sixteen horses and followed by veterans of the armies of the Republic and the Empire, passed through the Arc de Triomphe. It took the procession several hours to reach Les Invalides.

The coffin, surrounded by the flags of Austerlitz, is carried inside the chapel where hundreds of thousands of people will come, in the following days, to pay their respects before the coffin bearing the imperial crown of Charlemagne and the golden laurel diadem of Caesar.

Victor Hugo left a very beautiful account of this memorial day in Choses vues : "Lafayette is forgotten, while Napoleon is still alive. Lafayette was just a date. Napoleon is a genius."

Hugo followed the procession's route outside, in -14°C weather. We do not know if Delacroix accepted George Sand's invitation and if he attended this ceremony.

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Origin:

Achille Piron (universal legatee of Delacroix)

Marc Loliée Library

Bibliography:

George Sand – Correspondence , Lubin, t. V, pp. 183-184.

Sand Delacroix – Correspondence , ed. Françoise Alexandre.