Paintings : 41
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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 […]
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PaintingPortrait of the Roi de Rome
Picking up his quill after viewing the Portrait de S.M. le Roi de Rome, one of three paintings exhibited at the Salon of 1812 by Prud’hon, the well-known writer Charles Paul Landon* was moved to offer his own textual reproduction of the work: “The august child is depicted without clothes, asleep in the grass. His head […]
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PaintingMarie Louise
After the definitive defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna made Marie Louise (1791-1847) life duchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla. The new sovereign, who Italianised her name to Maria Luigia, gave sensitive support to the arts during her 30-year reign, just as she had done as empress of France. This painting probably dates from the […]
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PaintingPortrait of Napoleon III
Originally from Montpellier, Alexandre Cabanel’s career was without blemish, beginning, in the most classic of fashions, with a schooling according to the 19th century academic curriculum. This was followed by the Prix de Rome in 1845 and medals at the Salon of 1853 and the Universal Exhibition of 1855. That same year, he was made […]
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PaintingBust portrait of Empress Marie-Louise
Sold following the death of Baron Gérard, 27 – 29 April 1837; Collection La Caze, Paris; bequeathed to the Musée du Louvre, 1869. Gérard took his first steps at the 1791 Salon as a history painter but quickly established himself in the portrait genre. During the Empire period, he was the official portraitist to the imperial aristocracy and it […]
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PaintingThe Apotheosis of Napoleon I
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 […]
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PaintingGeneral de Lariboisière bids adieu to his son, just before the Battle of Borodino, 7 September, 1812
During the last years of the Empire, Gros’s talent as a history painter appeared to be on the wane; it would be through his military portraits that he would rediscover the creative intensity of his earlier work, such as Bonaparte visiting the plague victims of Jaffa and Napoleon visiting the battlefield of Eylau. But whilst the […]
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PaintingNapoleon in his study at the Tuileries
On 3 August, 1811, the wealthy Scot, Alexander, Marquis of Douglas – who was to become the tenth Duke of Hamilton in 1819 – wrote to David commissioning from him a portrait of Napoleon. “… You have graciously chosen my brush through which to transfer onto canvas the features of the Great Man and to […]