This picture contains the profiles of Napoleon,
Marie louise and their son. Can you find all three?
The print shown is from an engraving by Canu in 1815. Copies were circulated among the supporters of the exiled Emperor. They would
toast, "Corporal Violet."
During the exile of Napoleon I at Elba, in the year 1814, preceding Napoleon's abdication, the French Bonapartists chose, as
their emblem, the violet because of the Capitulation of Paris. They nicknamed Napoleon "Caporal Violet, the little flower that
returns with spring". Postcards picturing a bunch of innocent looking violets soon flooded France, but when scrutinized
closely, the violets in the bouquet revealed the outlines of portraits of Napoleon, Marie Louise and of their three year old son,
Charles, King of Rome. The French government fought, by decree on and off, until the year 1874 any reproduction of a violet
because it was the symbol of the Bonapartists.
Author Unknown
Credits: The Playful Eye by Julian Rothenstein and Mel
Gooding, 1999; Chronicle Books, SF. Original engraving by Canu: 1815
Click here to read a strange story about the death of Napoleon.