Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), Emperor of France, three-quarter-length, in Coronation robes

Baron Gérard’s portrait of Napoleon stands as both the defining image of his coronation as Emperor of France and one of the most iconic images of power in western painting. Executed soon after his coronation in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris, on 2 December 1804, Gérard’s full-length (present whereabouts unknown) shows Napoleon standing in the Throne Room of the Tuileries Palace, the seat of the Empire. In his role as First Painter to the Emperor, Jacques-Louis David had been initially entrusted with the official portrait of the newly-crowned Napoleon. However, the latter was evidently dissatisfied with the result and David’s now-lost full-length was quickly supplanted by that of his pupil, Gérard. The present three-quarter-length portrait, signed and dated 1811 and very probably executed for a member of the Imperial household, is one of the numerous versions produced by Gérard and his assistants that have ensured its status as one of the most widely recognised of the Napoleon iconography.

Napoleon’s preference for Gérard’s relatively conventional composition over those produced by both David and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1806; Paris, Musée de l'Armée, Hôtel des Invalides) reveal a desire to link his recent legitimacy with France’s past and the Bourbon reigns since Louis XIV. The Emperor is shown in the sumptuous robes designed by Jean-Baptiste Isabey and Charles Percier; a long ivory satin robe embroidered with gold and a crimson velvet cloak strewn with gold bees and lined with ermine. Along with the orb and sceptre, Napoleon is shown with the coronation sword, set with precious stones and surmounted by the famous diamond known as the ‘Régent’. While much of his regalia is symbolic of the former monarchy, Napoleon’s golden crown of laurels and staff surmounted by an eagle are emblems that clearly underline his desire to associate the new French Empire with that of the Roman Empire.

Gérard’s original had been painted for Charles Maurice de Talleyrand Périgord (1754–1838), Napoleon’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, who was appointed Grand Chamberlain of the Empire in 1804. The full-length, for which Gerard was paid 12,000 francs, was initially hung in the ministry’s audience room on Rue Saint-Florentin, Paris, in 1806, and was subsequently moved to the Château de Valençay, Talleyrand’s residence south-east of Tours in the department of Indre. The canvas was sold for 16,500 francs at the four-day sale of Talleyrand’s collection in 1889, but its present whereabouts remain unknown. Numerous versions are recorded, including those at Fontainebleau; Capodimonte, Naples; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam and Versailles, the last of which has been considered by some scholars as the prime.

Although Gérard’s portrait was yet to be completed, by 22 December 1804 Jean-Baptiste de Nompère de Champagny, Minister of the Interior for France, had already ordered a series of full-, half- and bust-length replicas for members of the imperial family, dignitaries of the regime and diplomatic or consular residences overseas. In addition, replicas were ordered that could serve as models for both the Gobelins and Sèvres factories. From 1806, Gérard received regular payments for these and in 1811, the year the present picture was executed, the artist was paid 24,000 francs for four canvases, intended for ‘les grands officiers civils de la Couronne’ (see X. Salmon, Peintre des Rois, Roi des Peintres: François Gérard Portraitiste, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2014, p. 86, under no. 20).

We are grateful to Alain Latreille for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.