Saturday, August 31, 2013

Allegory of the State of France before the Return from Egypt (1810)

Jean-Pierre Franque: Allegory of the State of France before the Return from Egypt

A piece of Napoleonic propaganda showing "France" yearning for Napoleon to return from foreign shores and fix things at home. It's true that things got a bit chaotic in France while Napoleon was touring the Pyramids. Still, the fact that this was painted over a decade after the fact implies that it was done in response to the political climate of 1810, not 1798.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Stella painting a Madonna on his Prison Wall (1810)

François-Marius Granet: Stella painting a Madonna on his Prison Wall

"Stella" would appear to be Jacques Stella (1596-1657), a French painter of the early Baroque period.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Comtesse Daru (1810)

Jacques-Louis David: Comtesse Daru

David signed this portrait at four o’clock on March 14, 1810. He had executed it as a surprise for Comte Daru, who had obtained for David his payment for Le Sacre, the vast painting of the coronation of Napoleon and Josephine. The subject’s character, so sympathetically conveyed by David, was characterized by her admirer Stendhal as “forceful, frank, and jolly.”

Source: Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The French Army Pulling Down the Rosbach Column (1810)

Pierre Antoine Augustin Vafflard:  
The French Army Pulling Down the Rosbach Column, 18 October 1806

Vafflard was a painter of historical and genre scenes, and portraits. I have not been able to find anything definitive about the incident depicted in this painting. Perhaps the "Rosbach Column" was a commemoration of the Battle of Rossbach in 1757, when Frederick the Great defeated the French and Austrians - clear motivation for Napoleon's forces to disrespect it in this fashion.

Monday, August 26, 2013

The Battle of Austerlitz (1810)

François Gérard: The Battle of Austerlitz

This battle, also called The Battle of Three Emperors, took place in 1805 and was Napoleon's greatest victory.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

General of the First Empire (ca. 1810)

Théodore Géricault: General of the First Empire Attacking the Enemy

Géricault (1791-1824; a sadly brief life) pioneered Romanticism in France.