Though listed as a miniature this is more accurately a small watercolour portrait, including a painted false oval surround, in a lined grey card mount and gesso-moulded and gilded picture frame. Napoleon is shown head and shoulders, head half turned and looking to his right, in blue and white uniform with epaulettes and decorations (no hat), against a red-brown background. The mount is inscribed in gold at the bottom 'NAPOLEON' and 'M. Mercer Elphinstone fecit 1815': the latter is repeated in ink on the reverse, which also bears a Colnaghi label and the fragmentary inscription 'Lady KE married the Conte de... whose son by... was duc de...'.

Margaret Mercer Elphinstone (1788-1867) was the only child of Admiral George Keith Elphinstone and his first wife Jane Mercer. In 1797 he became Baron Keith of Stonehaven Marischal in the Irish peerage (and a baron in the UK peerage in 1801), as well as Baron Keith of Banheath, Dumbarton, in 1803: in both cases these titles carried a special remainder to his daughter. He became 1st Viscount Keith in the UK peerage in 1814 but as his second marriage only produced another daughter, the viscountcy died with him in 1823. Margaret then became 2nd Baroness Keith (under the remaindered titles) and also, in 1837, 4th Baroness Nairne on the death of her cousin, William. Since she in turn only had four daughters, the Keith baronies died with her, the Nairne title continuing in the female line.

Margaret was brought early into the circle of Princess Charlotte of Wales, over whom she exercised considerable influence (often to the displeasure of the Princess's father, later George IV). A considerable heiress, she herself refused various suitors, including the Duke of Clarence (later William IV) and in 1817 braved her father's displeasure by marrying the English-educated Auguste-Charles-Joseph, Comte de Flahault (1785-1870). Formerly a Napoleonic general and the Emperor's aide-de-camp, he was later French 'chef de mission' in Berlin, and ambassador in Vienna and London. The illegible inscription on the back of this item refers both to his marriage to Margaret and to his illegitimate son Charles Demorny, known later as the Duc de Morny (b. 1811), from an earlier liaison with Napoleon's sister-in-law Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Holland at the time. The Flahault marriage was successful, Margaret becoming a noted society hostess. In 1843 her eldest daughter, Emily, married the Earl of Shelburne, later 4th Marquess of Lansdowne. The present item is therefore an accomplished amateur portrait of Napoleon but undoubtedly from a secondary source, despite the fact that Margaret's father's last notable service as Channel Fleet commander, based at Plymouth, was to supervise the ex-Emperor's detention on board the 'Bellerophon' in Plymouth Sound and handle his dispatch to exile on St Helena. He strongly disapproved of the local public interest Napoleon aroused, and there is no evidence Margaret was among the thousands who came to see him from boats round the ship (see BHC3227). She herself was a great admirer of Napoleon, as was Flahault, both being enthisiastic collectors of Napoleoniana and enduring champions of his memory against the prevailing tide. Margaret, moreover, was a skilled amateur artist and portraitist who also worked on porcelain, including pieces inserted in furniture. Her will left a great deal of work to her daughter Emily and Bowood, the Lansdowne house in Wiltshire, still holds much related to the Keiths, Flahault and Napoleon. While many of her own works have been scattered by inheritance, this is a significant example illustrating the mutual Napoleonic enthusiasm which helped form her early bond with Flahault when they first met in 1816.