Paintings

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…

Inscribed on the back of the painting : donné par M. Steuben/à Mad. Amable/Tastu/ le 14 février 1826. [Given by M.[onsieur] Steuben/ to Mad.[ame] Amable Tastu/ on 14 February 1826] The artist Charles de Steuben, a pupil during the Empire period of David’s (let us not forget, that Jacques-Louis was once member of the Jacobin […]

The title of this work is a quotation from the Emperor’s last will and testament, indeed it is one of its most quoted lines: “It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom I have loved so well”.   For this […]

In August 1797, the future Grand Master of the Imperial University, Jean-Pierre-Louis de Fontanes, wrote a letter praising the young general Bonaparte to the skies. “It is said”, he enthused, “that you always have a copy of Ossian in your pocket – even in the midst of battles”. The sixteen-year-old Lamartine wrote of his own […]

Towards the end of the Second Empire, the legend of Napoleon began to take hold of Jean-Léon Gérôme, who proceeded to extract from the mythical Egyptian campaign such subjects that could be combined with his love for Orientalism. With the hundredth anniversary of Napoleon’s birth approaching (1869), in 1867 the artist rather appropriately came to […]

Turner’s work was often inspired by the Anglo-French conflicts of the Napoleonic period. The Battle of Trafalgar is depicted in his work from 1806 (Tate Gallery), and in 1822, he was commissioned by King George IV to produce a new painting on the subject (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich). The ships that participated in the battle, […]

After the coup d’état in 1851, Ingres, a partisan of the new government, made no effort to hide his support for Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. His admiration for the nephew of Napoleon I, and his support for the imperial regime saw him receive and accept a commission which was probably made through the Prince Napoleon. On 2 […]

Born in the English colony of Pennsylvania, Benjamin West set up in London in 1763 after having spent a time in Italy, where he had discovered nascent Neo-classicism. A founding member of the Royal Academy and its president for thirty years, West was George III’s official artist and protégé, not to mention covered with honours. […]