Paintings : 26
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Painting / Directory / 1st EmpireJoachim Murat on horseback
Presented at the 1812 Salon, this portrait by Antoine-Jean Gros of Joachim Murat, King of Naples, on horseback in 1806 echoes another work that Murat had commissioned: The Battle of Aboukir, July 25, 1799, a monumental painting (5.78 m 9 68 m Palace of Versailles), which remains one of the greatest Orientalist masterpieces of the Empire. […]
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Painting / Directory / 1st EmpireThe Sisters, Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte
In this tour de force double portrait, two sisters sit on a sofa reading a letter. They are Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte, Napoleon’s nieces, and the letter is from their father, Joseph Bonaparte. David captures here not only the intimacy of siblings – the protective way they hold each other – but also a sense […]
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Painting / Directory / 1st EmpireLetizia Bonaparte as a Young Woman
This unattributed portrait of Letizia Bonaparte, which today hangs in the Imperial Mother’s bedroom in Musée National de la Maison Bonaparte in Ajaccio (Corsica), is remarkable for several reasons. Most notable is that fact that despite being painted in the early nineteenth century (that is, during the sitter’s later life) it does not show her […]
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PaintingInauguration Ceremony of the Suez Canal at Port-Said, 17 November, 1869
Edouard Riou (1833-1900) was a Pre-Impressionist painter, a renowned illustrator of books by Jules Verne and Alexandre Dumas, and a contributor to the weekly newspaper Le tour du monde, and in 1870, at the request of Ferdinand de Lesseps, he created a souvenir album of the Empress’ voyage undertaken for the inauguration of the Suez […]
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PaintingPortrait of Elisa Baciocchi, Grand Duchess of Tuscany
Elisa Baciocchi, née Elisa Bonaparte, was the eldest of Napoleon’s three sisters, who all became imperial princesses after their brother’s coronation. Elisa was born in 1777 in Ajaccio, and she married army officer Félix Baciocchi in 1797. In 1805, she became Princess of Piombino and Lucca, then Grand-Duchess of Tuscany in 1809. Her arrival in […]
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PaintingThe Empress Josephine in the park at Malmaison
Little is known about the commission for this painting. Apparently, the initial idea came from Guillaume Constantin, curator of the Empress’s collections at Malmaison, and from the painter Isabey. Probably begun in 1805, the work was not to be finished until the end of 1809. Prud’hon was most likely slowed up by his work on the painting […]
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PaintingPortrait of Bernardine-Eugénie-Désirée Clary, Princesse de Pontecorvo
The life of Désirée Clary – a most curious individual – was to change forever following the meeting of the Bonaparte and Clary families in Marseille during the Revolutionary period. Despite harbouring no political ambitions, this bourgeois lady from the south of France was eventually obliged to join her husband, Bernadotte (who ascended to the […]
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PaintingPortrait of Marie Louise, Empress of France
This contemporary portrait of the empress Marie Louise is a perfect example of an official portrait. The canvas is still in its original frame, itself decorated with the usual bees. And Lefebvre’s painting clearly received imperial approval since two further slightly varied copies were made, one of which was bought by Chaumet in 1975 and […]
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PaintingQueen Hortense under a pergola, Aix-les-Bains
On 27 May, 1813, Hortense de Beauharnais left her children, Napoleon Louis and Louis-Napoleon, in the care of her mother, former French empress Josephine, and left to take the waters in Aix-en-Savoie (today known as Aix-les-Bains). Amongst her travelling party was her loyal friend, Adèle de Broc. Whilst there, on 10 June, the two ladies […]
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PaintingPrincess Clotilde and her son Victor
A great defender of the “principe des nationalités” (the “nationality principle”, which encompasses the general idea that State and Nation should correspond), Napoleon III threw his support behind the unification process – initiated by the Victor-Emmanuel II, King of Piedmont-Sardinia – which was to take place on the Italian peninsula. This support was given official […]