In pictures

This painting shows two of the “honneurs de l'Empereur” worn during the coronation but today destroyed: the necklace of the Légion d'honneur (melted down to be replaced by another version) and the coronation crown, melted down during the Restoration.

Work painted after the portrait begun by David had been abandoned. Just like his teacher, Gérard shows the beautiful Juliette Récamier in a white dress, barefoot, and in a languid pose. But the decor is much more bland, apparently a bathroom in the antique style, recogniseable from the drainage holes in the marble. Madame Récamier has here […]

Chaudet was commissioned to produce a statue of of “Napoleon the Legislator” which was intended for the Corps Législatif and inaugurated on 14 January 1805 (but carried off by the Prussians in 1815). Using this statue Chaudet made a bust of Napoleon as a herm in June-July of 1804. A plaster mould was sent to […]

Signed “Boutet Directeur Artiste Manufacture à Versailles” (Boutet Director Artist Manufactory at Versailles), this glaive is ornamented with lions' heads, trophies of arms and antique-style medallions.

Commissioned by Bonaparte in 1800 for the Salon de Compagnie at Malmaison, this painting is a homage to the key generals who died at the beginning of the Revolutionary wars: Desaix, Marceau, Dampierre, Kléber, Caffarelli du Falga, La Tour d'Auvergne, Joubert, Championnet, Dugommier and Hoche, all welcomed into paradise by Ossian. Above these heroes, a […]

Cette représentation du Diable cache en fait une représentation de Napoléon lui-même : quand on retourne l'image, la silhouette qui apparaît en ombre chinoise est celle de l'Empereur.

Cette image est le revers d'une caricature figurant le Diable : en la retournant, la silhouette en ombre chinoise s'avère être celle de Napoléon.