Paintings

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. […]

In this full-length portrait of Napoleon, Charles Lock Eastlake represents the deposed Emperor, dressed in the green uniform of a colonel of the “chasseurs à cheval de la Garde”, on the bridge of Bellerophon which he had boarded on 15 July 1815, ultimately putting his fate in the hands of the British Prince Regent, after […]

See this painting in HD Following the destruction of the old London Houses of Parliament in a fire in 1834, the new “Mother of Parliaments” was rebuilt and decorated in the 1850s. For the Royal Gallery, the Fine Arts Commission (led by Prince Albert) decided on a decorative scheme of 18 monumental frescos illustrating British […]

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 […]

In 1810, Parisians and tourists to the French capital had the privilege of visiting this beautiful square, at whose centre stood the majestic Fontaine du Palmier commemorating the victories of Napoleon’s Grande Armée. Until 1802, the scene had been dominated by the Grand Châtelet, a 9th century fortress reconstructed in stone and extended in the […]

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 […]

Seated on the great throne at the west end of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Napoleon raises his right hand to swear his constitutional oath. To his right, in a smaller throne, is Josephine. They are surrounded by princes, dignitaries and generals who all turn their attention to this dramatic gesture. It is 2 December 1804, […]

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, […]

Turning off the Rue Chantereine in October 1795 and continuing down a long driveway formed by the walls of the adjacent properties, Napoleon Bonaparte would have found himself at the modest private residence in which Marie-Joseph-Rose de Tascher de la Pagerie lived. Their romantic entanglement began within these walls (appropriately enough, since Josephine was renting […]