Paintings : 166
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PaintingPortrait of Sarah Bernhardt in the role of the “Aiglon”Sarah Bernhardt is undoubtedly the most celebrated and even adored actress of the Belle Époque in France. In addition to her unanimously celebrated talent, she left another legacy: that of having brought to life the main character in Edmond Rostand’s play of the same name,… -
PaintingA Photograph of Empress Eugenie in Prayer (1856)During the summer of 1856, photographer Gustave Le Gray (1820-1884) made several portraits of the Empress Eugenie at the Palace of Saint-Cloud; she had given birth to the Prince Imperial a few months earlier (on 16 March). The idea behind the photos was to assist fellow artist Thomas Couture (1815-1879) in his composition of a […]
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PaintingBertrand Andrieu or the SkaterAmong the countless works exhibited at the Salon of 1798 hung a surprising work by a still little-known artist named Pierre-Maximilien Delafontaine.[1] Pierre-Maximilien was born in 1774 into a family of bronzesmiths and could easily have taken the same professional path as his father. However, he preferred to pursue a career as a painter. Using […]
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PaintingThe Rehearsal for the SacreThis widely reproduced engraving (after an original painting by Jean-Georges Vibert (1895)[1] depicts an event that is said to have happened about a week before Napoleon’s coronation and consecration (otherwise known as the “Sacre”), in which the Emperor was able to fine-tune the orchestration of… -
PaintingPhotograph: Ruins of the Tuileries Palace, Grand Vestibule and Place du Carrousel (May 1871)The Palais des Tuileries A few months after the fall of the Second Empire and the establishment of the Third Republic, Paris, the so-called City of Light, was lit up by the fires of a popular insurrection. The Communards [e.g. the Parisian insurgents], knowing they were… -
PaintingPortrait of the First Consul at MalmaisonOf all the portraits of Bonaparte, very few works represent him at the chateau de Malmaison. The most emblematic of them is this 1802 drawing by Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767-1855) from the collection of the Musée National des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau. -
PaintingEmpress Josephine in her coronation robesThe coronation and consecration ceremony or “Sacre” This massive painting of the Empress Josephine enthroned in majesty recalls 2 December 1804, the day of the “Sacre” [coronation and consecration], an historic moment when the imperial couple was at its zenith. The historian Pierre Branda* describes it as follows: “The great day of the coronation had […]
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PaintingDavid’s studies for the army’s new standards, January 1812New standards In January 1812, the Emperor ordered the creation of new standards, to be renewed every three years. He specified that they be made of a double silk, tightly woven and carefully embroidered. In response, the Comte de Cessac, “Ministre de l’administration de la… -
PaintingDesign for an aerostat/dirigible presented to the Académie des SciencesA promising young engineering officer Jean-Baptiste Meusnier de La Place (1754-1793), a brilliant scientist of middle class origins, was appointed correspondent to the Académie des sciences at the age of 22 and was elected a member in 1785. There he rubbed shoulders with the greatest scientists of his time (notably Berthollet, Lavoisier, Borda, etc.), and […]
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Painting“Allegory of the exile and death of Napoleon I on St Helena” or “Napoleon’s tomb”This small black and white postcard is a photograph of a painting (now lost) by Horace Vernet, painted in July 1821 immediately after learning of the death, two months earlier, of Napoleon I. Vernet was a fervent Bonapartist and his best-known Napoleonic works are Napoleon I reviewing…