Paintings

This portrait of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754-1838), Prince of Benevento, reflects the reputation of its subject: fearless and serene, with a slight smile (even a smirk?) on his lips. When Gérard painted it during the year 1807-1808, Talleyrand had resigned as Napoleon’s foreign minister on the 10 August, 1807 because of his opposition to […]

Jean-Baptiste Isabey began his career at the court of Versailles during the Ancien Régime and became one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s official painters. He was one of the only artists given privileged access to the First Consul at Malmaison, and as a result he created the iconic early view of Napoleon. Isabey was a pupil of […]

The image presented here is a chromolithograph, in other words a colour lithograph (based on four colours – three primary colours and black – giving a full palette of tones) a printing method precursor to the offset printing process which largely replaced it from the 1930s onwards. It’s a rather rare example of a colour […]

This pen, ink and watercolour drawing depicts the rear façade of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame (referred to at the time as the Metropolitan Church of Paris) as it appeared on 2 December 1804 for the coronation of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of the French. The east end of Notre-Dame has been augmented with a rotunda, […]

When Baron Gérard painted this portrait of the Countess Marie Walewska in 1810, the young lady in question was twenty-three years old, and had been one of Napoleon’s mistresses for the last three years. It is not clear whether the portrait was painted before or after she gave birth to Napoleon’s son, Alexander, Count Walewski, […]

Ernest Meissonier is famous for his military paintings, and he soon attracted a following fascinated by his care for detail and the realism of his uniforms. And one of his most famous paintings, 1814, the French Campaign, singlehandedly revolutionised the genre of war painting. For there he concentrates not on the action and the fighting […]

In 1804, Napoleon commissioned a series of portraits on the occasion of his coronation on 2 December. This picture here (one of that series), a standing portrait of one of Napoleon’s closest colleagues, Géraud-Christophe-Michel Duroc, his real name being Géraud-Christophe Michel du Roc de Brion, was painted by Jean-Antoine Gros. Gros was a friend of […]

Adolphe Yvon was principally a painter of battle scenes and a student of Paul Delaroche. His works include Marshal Ney Supporting the Rear Guard during the Retreat from Moscow (1856, Manchester Art Gallery), the Taking of the Malakoff tower by General Mac-Mahon, 8 September, 1855 (salon of 1857, Château de Versailles et de Trianon), The […]

Horace Vernet was a Bonapartist and profoundly patriotic, and he sought to evoke the Napoleonic era in his numerous works, which often have Napoleon as their central figure. Here he not only celebrates the will and the courage of marshal Moncey (1754-1842), a famous military personage, but also anonymous Parisians who rallied to the defence […]

This canvas is one of a series of preparatory studies that Boilly carried out in preparation for L’Atelier d’un sculpteur. Tableau de Famille. The painting, better known today as L’Atelier de Houdon, was unveiled at the Salon of 1804 and is today held in the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris. This particular work, completed […]