ATTRIBUTED TO JEAN-BAPTISTE-JOSEPH DE BAY | PORTRAIT BUST OF GENERAL PIERRE CAMBRONNE

Pierre-Jacques-Etienne Cambronne, 1^st Viscount Cambronne (1770-1842), was one of the most notable Napoleonic generals. He fought with distinction from around 1800 to the Battle of Waterloo, where he was captured by the British. When called to surrender as commander of the famous Vieille Garde, he is supposed to have responded: ‘La garde meurt, mais se rend pas!’ (The [Old] Guard dies, but does not surrender); other accounts reported that his reply was more succinct, simply ‘Merde!’. However, these accounts have been disputed.

Born in Nantes, during his illustrious military career Cambronne saw action in Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Russia and Germany. Having been promoted to major in the Imperial Guard, Cambronne accompanied Napoleon in exile to Elba. On Napoleon’s return to France in March 1815, Cambronne was ennobled for a lifetime of distinguished service. Cambronne was badly wounded at Waterloo and after having been taken prisoner was cared for by a Scottish nurse, Mary Osburn, whom he later married. Cambronne lived into his seventies and Debay’s bronze statue of him, from which the present plaster bust derives, was erected in his native Nantes in 1848.