François Flameng (1896)

 François Flameng: Reception at Compiegne in 1810

  

François Flameng: Reception at Malmaison in 1802

After the Charge, Hanau (1896)

Henri-Georges-Jacques Chartier: After the Charge, Hanau

The Battle of Hanau took place during the War of the Sixth Coalition and resulted in a tactical victory for the French.

Napoleon on Campaign (1895)

Édouard Detaille: Napoleon on Campaign

Friedland (1875)

Ernest Meissonier: 1807, Friedland

This work, the largest and most ambitious painting by an artist renowned for meticulously rendered cabinet pictures, evokes one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s greatest victories. Meissonier made hundreds of preparatory studies for it, including drawings and sculptural models. He conceived the picture as part of a cycle of five key episodes in the life of the Emperor, only one other of which was completed: The Campaign of France—1814, an image of defeat (Musée d'Orsay, Paris). The present work gained notoriety in 1876, when the American department store magnate Alexander T. Stewart purchased it from the artist, sight unseen, for the then astronomical sum of $60,000. [Metropolitan Museum]

The Supper at Beaucaire (1869)

Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ: The Supper at Beaucaire

This scene depicts an event that occurred at the beginning of Bonaparte's career, when he was still a young captain. He was responsible for conveying powder intended for soldiers of the Army of Italy, in the middle of the federalist insurrection of Midi. On 28 July 1793, he arrived in Beaucaire at the house of Mr. Renaudet, pharmacist, and at night he dined at an inn with four merchants who had come to a fair. It was after this meal he wrote a dialogue text entitled The Supper at Beaucaire, in which he made a Republican profession of faith, trying to convince his interlocutors the need of the Revolution. [L'Histoire par l'Image]

Napoleon and the Sphinx (1868)

Jean-Léon Gérôme: Napoleon and the Sphinx

Napoleon and his General Staff in Egypt (1867)

Jean-Léon Gérôme: Napoleon and his General Staff in Egypt

The painting Napoleon and His General Staff in Egypt depicts Napoleon and his troops riding camels through the desert, accompanied by several Bedouins on horseback. According to the writer Earl Shinn, who included a photogravure of the painting in his book Gérôme, A Collection of the Works of J. L. Gérôme in One Hundred Photogravures, the somber general is retreating from the bloody and failed siege of Acre, Syria: 'mounted on his ungainly beast of burden, in this burning and dreary march... with his discontented and defeated army around him...[Napoleon] experiences, for the first time, the bitterness of disappointed ambition.' [Christie's]

Ernest Meissonier (1864)

 Ernest Meissonier: Emperor Napoléon III at the Battle of Solférino

  

Ernest Meissonier: The French Campaign, 1814

This painting—in a small format rather unusual for a painter of military history—indicates Meissonier's taste for seventeenth-century Flemish and Dutch painting and demonstrates his nimble, polished style. Despite its smallness, the vast expanse of desolate plain and leaden sky give breadth to the scene as does the dilated perspective around the central figure of the Emperor magnified by a slightly low angle. The least details are minutely recorded: Napoleon's sprouting beard, the veins on the horse's legs, the snow dirtied by the marching troops... the Director of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Charles Blanc, said that Meissonier "painted grandly in a small size". The artist applied the same meticulous approach, but as a historian this time, to his preparatory research: he collected abundant documentation, questioned many eyewitnesses and tried unsuccessfully to borrow the Emperor's grey coat. [Musée d’Orsay]

Napoleon I in 1814 (1862)

Ernest Meissonier: Napoleon I in 1814

Installation of the Council of State (1856)

Auguste Couder: Installation of the Council of State, 25 December 1799

And there's a young Napoleon as the central figure.

Napolean Crossing the Alps (1850)

Paul Delaroche: Napoleon Crossing the Alps

This is arguably the most famous painting of Napoleon. In contrast to many portraits of Napoleon which exaggerate his status and authority, Paul Delaroche has elected to portray a younger Napoleon, who was yet to crown himself Emperor.

The sharp angles of the rock faces, icicles and freezing mist reinforce the treacherous nature of the Great St Bernard Pass which cuts its way through the Alps. A lone peasant leads a mule through the snow-capped scene. Atop the mule sits a forlorn and slightly bedraggled Napoleon, wrapped in a greatcoat that is more functional than vainglorious. There are no visible accoutrements to his immense power. He leads no army, wields no weapon and displays no medals; he rides a lowly mule rather than his more usual rearing white stallion, which follows him in the bottom left corner. The painting is unusual in the way it downplays what was a victorious military campaign but also because it was commissioned by an Englishman, Arthur George, 3rd Earl of Onslow one of many noblemen who, surprisingly perhaps, admired Napoleon.

The painting, however, is not meant to disparage or insult a man with whom Delaroche was fascinated. His obsession stemmed from the strong physical resemblance he bore to Napoleon and whose successes and reversals he compared to his own. In his view, the iconic figure of Napoleon would not be demeaned by being revealed as a credible and vulnerable man. [Cheshire Life]

Emperor Napoleon I and His Staff on Horseback (1850)

Horace Vernet: Emperor Napoleon I and His Staff on Horseback

Pierre-Nolasco Bergeret

Pierre-Nolasco Bergeret: Alexandre I présente à Napoléon I les Kalmouks, les Cosaques et les Baskirs de l’armée russe, 9 juillet 1807

Jean-Baptiste Debret

Debret was another painter of Napoleon.

Napoleon Paying Tribute to the Courage of the Unfortunate

  

Napoléon Harangue les Troupes Bavaroises et Wurtembourgeoises à Abensberg, 1810

Carle Vernet

Carle Vernet: His Majesty Giving Orders to 

His Marshals, the Morning of the Battle of Austerlitz

Vernet has been featured here before; he seems to have made a career out of painting Napoleon.

Robert Lefèvre

 Portrait of Two Elegantly Dressed Ladies

  

Portrait of Napoleon I

Napoleon and the Little Messenger (1847)

Joseph Louis Hippolyte Bellange: Napoleon and the Little Messenger

The Divorce of Empress Josephine (1846)

Henri-Frederic Schopin: The Divorce of Empress Josephine, 15th December 1809

Napoleon at Wagram (1841)

Joseph Louis Hippolyte Bellangé: Napoleon at Wagram, July 1809

The Battle of Wagram was a decisive (but not complete) victory for the French over the forces of the Fifth Coalition.

General Bonaparte at the Council of 500 (1840)

François Bouchot: General Bonaparte at the Council of 500 in Saint-Cloud, November 10, 1799

This scene is part of the Coup of 18 Brumaire, which brought Napoleon to power as First Consul of France, and, in the view of most historians, ended the French Revolution.