Paintings : 41
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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 EmpirePortrait of Marie Laczinska, Countess Walewska, later Countess d’Ornano (1786-1817)
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, […]
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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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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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PaintingPORTRAIT OF GÉRAUD-CHRISTOPHE-MICHEL DUROC
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 […]
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PaintingBonaparte crossing the Great St Bernard Pass
The relationship between Napoleon Bonaparte and Jacques-Louis David was tumultuous, but we tend to think rather of the images the latter made of the former, which helped the cause of the general, First Consul then Emperor during fifteen years of power. David started this portrait following the failure of a first monumental portrait which was […]
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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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PaintingJean-Antoine Houdon sculpting the bust of First Consul Bonaparte
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 […]
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PaintingSentinella – Garibaldean volunteer during the siege of Rome
The night of 2 June 1849, 30,000 soldiers under the command of General Oudinot attacked the fortifications on the Janiculum hill. It would be another month before the French expeditionary corps – greater in number, arms and equipment – would succeed in entering Rome. The city had been declared a Republic in February after the […]
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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 […]