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Description: | This is one of several versions of Gerard's larger-than-life likeness of Napoleon Bonaparte, being a studio copy (or, possibly, the original) of a painting commissioned for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1805. Gerard's imperious portrait, which shows Napoleon in the Throne Room of the Tuileries Palace became the official image of the First Empire, with copies displayed at political centres throughout the realm. Correspondence in the Wisbech and Fenland Museum archive points to the colourful history of this version. It is said that the painting was surreptitiously cut from the frame whilst on display in a French gallery, and sold to G.M. Levefre as a rolled-up canvas. Its subsequent owner, William Peckover, later refused to sell the picture to two French visitors who had travelled to Wisbech in search of the lost' Napoleon, despite an offer of £500, five times what he had paid for the canvas (see MS correspondence relating to the painting at Wisbech and Fenland museum). It is now not certain which of the many versions of this portrait is the original (see, for comparison, another version at the Musée national du chteau de Fontainebleau). | Subjects: | portrait (Napoleon I); figure; military and war | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Gérard, François, Baron (French painter, 1770-1837) and studio Æ | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8314... | Go to resource |
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