The empress Josephine and her entourage visiting the statue San Carlo Borromeo

Nicolas-Antoine Taunay was a prolific artist, and he painted every theme imaginable. Indeed, although he was to describe himself at the end of his life as a “painter of historical landscapes”, his oeuvre (of more than a thousand paintings) shows that he was much more could be expressed by such a limited classification. Nor did he shun the Napoleonic legend, competing in the competition, won by Gros, for the painting of the Battle of Nazareth. He was particularly fond of military scenes, producing renowned versions of The attack on the castello di Cossaria near Millesimo and The battle and taking of the city of Ebersberg, 3 May, 1809, not forgetting his rendering of the triumphal entry into Munich, 24 October, 1805, Paris at the Villette barrier, 25 November, 1807. However he was to be best known for his representation of everyday life in the Grande Armée, including views of military hospitals, and troops marching in extreme conditions. His vision of an episode during the Peninsular War, The French army crossing the defiles of the Sierra Guadaramma, December 1808, has an undeniably Romantic dimension.
 

Taunay also tried Troubadour painting and painted many different sorts of genre painting. His famous voyage to Brazil in the years 1816 to 1821, on a mission to found an academy of Fine Arts, brought him international acclaim, especially today, for his very rare panoramic views of Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of the 19th century.

The empress Josephine was very fond of this artist's paintings and his special skill at bringing anecdotal liveliness to his work. Here the subject was short excursion made by the empress to Arona in June 1805 on the shores of Lago Maggiore. The landscape takes the lion's share of the composition, where a promontory is dominated by a monumental statue of San Carlo Borromeo. In the context of such gigantism, everything else (the empress, her entourage, the alms she is distributing, the young women sitting down to sketch) seems very secondary. But nevertheless, the sense for detail and the extraordinary liveliness give the work a characteristic charm. The painting was acquired by the French Musée national de Malmaison at an auction in April 2007, and it provides a partner for another painting by Taunay, H.M. the Empress in Italy receiving news of a victory, presented to the Salon of 1808 and which formed part of Josephine's own collection.
 
Karine Huguenaud (tr. P.H.)

July 2007