Napoléon I (1769–1821)

Napoléon I (1769–1821)

Napoléon I (1769–1821)
Artist:Jean-Baptiste Isabey (French, Nancy 1767–1855 Paris)
Date:1812
Medium:Ivory
Dimensions:Oval, 2 1/4 x 1 3/8 in. (56 x 36 mm)
Classification:Miniatures
Credit Line:Gift of Helen O. Brice, 1942
Accession Number:42.53.5
Catalogue Entry
The Artist: Isabey was born in Nancy, where he studied with the painter Jean-Baptiste Charles Claudot (1733–1805), who also taught Jean-Baptiste Jacques Augustin (1759–1832; see 17.190.1120a, b) and Jean Antoine Laurent (1763–1832). He went to Paris in 1786 and received some patronage from Marie Antoinette; however, he rose to a preeminent role among the early-nineteenth-century French miniaturists through his pupil Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837). She introduced him to Napoléon I, who was her stepfather and brother-in-law. Isabey became his court painter and had to maintain a number of studio assistants to help him provide the great number of miniatures of the emperor which he was called on to produce. His earlier works were done on ivory, but in the second decade of the nineteenth century he adopted the new technique of painting on paper stretched over sheets of metal. This enabled him to work on a larger scale and contributed to the fluent brushwork and luminosity of his later portrait miniatures.
The Miniature: The sitter wears the black uniform jacket of the National Guard with red collar and gold epaulets, and badges of the Légion d'Honneur, the Iron Crown of Lombardy, and the Grand Eagle of the Légion d'Honneur. This is one of many replicas of a standard portrait of Napoléon I produced by Isabey and his assistants from 1805, when the emperor founded the Order of the Iron Crown. A closely similar version, dated 1812, is in the Wallace Collection, London (Graham Reynolds, Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Miniatures, London, 1980, no. 185, ill.). Nos. 182 and 186 in the Wallace Collection are other versions assigned to Isabey himself. Two further examples, both of which are signed and one of which is dated 1813, are in the Musée du Louvre (Pierrette Jean-Richard, Miniatures sur ivoire, Paris, 1994, nos. 375, 376, ill.). The signature on the present miniature appears to be genuine. The backing (a portion of a trade card engraved on / RL AND GOLD / ... ker / ... nd Street, / ND. / description) indicates that it was reframed in England or the United States.
[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Location : Metropolitan Museum of Art