--- title: Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814/ description: An etching after the Hague art dealer Wijnand Esser draws Napoleon as a short, big-headed figure in oversized boots, peering through a telescope and… section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/van-moscouw-tot-elba-napoleon-esser-1814.jpg) # Van Moscouw tot Elba moest ik wyken (From Moscow to Elba I had to give way), Napoleon caricature by Wijnand Esser An etching after the Hague art dealer Wijnand Esser draws Napoleon as a short, big-headed figure in oversized boots, peering through a telescope and pointing toward Corsica, under a first-person verse in which he admits to retreating 'from Moscow to Elba'. The tell is the ventriloquized self-mockery: the deposed emperor is made to belittle himself, with his body proportions drawn for ridicule. - **Date:** 1814 - **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914) - **Made by:** Wijnand Esser, art dealer and publisher, The Hague - **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe) - **Country:** [Netherlands](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=netherlands) - **Medium:** [Print](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=print) - **Issuer type:** [Individual](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=individual) - **Regime:** [Sovereign Principality of the Netherlands](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=sovereign-principality-of-the-netherlands) - **Leader:** [William I of the Netherlands](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=william-i-of-the-netherlands) - **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public) - **Purpose:** [Reassure](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=reassure) - **Theme:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military) - **Event:** [Napoleonic Wars](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=napoleonic-wars) - **Techniques:** [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/) - **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are - **Source:** [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/collectie/object/RP-P-OB-76.902--d46dd93a457870e4423f76e5111f330b), retrieved September 29, 2026 - **Rights:** Public domain (published 1814, before 1931; Rijksmuseum marks the image Public Domain Mark 1.0, metadata CC0) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, object RP-P-OB-76.902 (Wijnand Esser, 1814) ## Text on the object Original (Dutch) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` W. Esser inventor by W. Esser Kunstkooper in de Spuijstraat L.S. N° 31 a Haage VAN MOSCOUW TOT ELBA MOEST IK WYKEN EN STAA NU ALS KLAAS NA CORSIKA TE KYKEN. ``` English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader) ``` W. Esser, inventor. By W. Esser, art dealer in the Spuistraat, no. 31, at The Hague. FROM MOSCOW TO ELBA I HAD TO GIVE WAY AND NOW STAND LIKE KLAAS LOOKING TOWARD CORSICA. ``` Read from the committed image. The Rijksmuseum shelfmark and a collector's number written in pencil below the plate are archival annotations and are omitted. Machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader. [← Bonaparte, Premier Consul de la Republique Francaise: Revue du Quintidi (Boilly, Levachez, Duplessis-Bertaux)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bonaparte-premier-consul-revue-du-quintidi-1802/) [Hurban, Hodzsa es Stur szemelyes leirasuk (wanted notice for the Slovak uprising leaders, Hungarian, German and Slovak) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hurban-hodzsa-stur-wanted-notice-beniczky-1848/) ## Using the same techniques - [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking) - [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling) - [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling) - [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer) - [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking) - [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer) - [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling) - [Exit Liberté a la Francois! or Buonaparte closing the Farce of Egalité, at St. Cloud (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/exit-liberte-buonaparte-gillray-1799/) (Nov 21, 1799 · Name-calling)