Inscribed: "La Belle Poule. DIVISION ENCALMINEE SOUS LA LIGNE".

‘Belle Poule’ bringing back Napoleon’s remains from Saint Helena, Nov 1840. Both the frigate, painted black for the occasion, and her accompaniment, the corvette ‘Favorite’, are shown in several positions becalmed in some unspecified southern hemisphere location (viz. the inscription’s “below the line”). Clearly visible amidships is a white 'windsail' (a canvas vent) set up to ventilate the lower decks, an arrangement not uncommon in the tropics and perhaps particularly apposite in this case given the nature of the ship's cargo.

Jean Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager was a French marine painter and engraver who accompanied the expedition to Saint Helena and produced numerous images of the event known as the ‘retour des cendres’ upon his return to France: the NMM collection includes a single other example in lithograph (PAH3034).

It is known that, during the voyage back, ‘Belle Poule’’s commander (the Prince de Joinville) became concerned at the prospect of hostilities with Britain (as a result of developments in the Egyptian–Ottoman War) and, on (or shortly after) 31 October, readied his ship for action. This depiction of ‘Belle Poule’ with her guns run out may therefore relate to this particular moment in the passage north.