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
- Made by
- Wijnand Esser, art dealer and publisher, The Hague
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- Netherlands
- Medium
- Issuer type
- Individual
- Regime
- Sovereign Principality of the Netherlands
- Leader
- William I of the Netherlands
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Reassure
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- Napoleonic Wars
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Rijksmuseum, 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
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.
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.
