AFTER JEAN-BAPTISTE ISABEY (FRENCH, 1767-1855)

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR

Details

AFTER JEAN-BAPTISTE ISABEY (FRENCH, 1767-1855)
Napoleon I (1769-1821), Emperor of France 1804-1814/1815, in Coronation robes, white-lined gold-bordered red cloak, wearing the chain of the Imperial French Order of the Legion of Honour, gold coronet, a gold staff in his right hand and another in his left, gold sword worn at waist, inscribed in pencil below 'grand costume de l'empereur'
bearing signature 'Isabey' (lower right)
watercolour and pencil on card
rectangular, 10½ x 8½ in. (268 x 215 mm.), gilt-wood frame

Provenance

Sotheby's, London, 25 November 1992, lot 579.

Brought to you by

Emma Durkin

edurkin@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2609

Lot Essay

The present work compares with a portrait of Napoleon by Jean-Baptiste Isabey and Charles Percier, entitled, L'Empereur en grand costume, illustrated in the Livre du Sacre [Book of the Coronation], Paris, 1805, pl. IX. A similar-sized full-length watercolour by Isabey, signed and dated 1808, of Empress Josephine in corresponding colours to the dress worn by the Emperor in the present portrait, is in the Louvre (inv. no. RF 3829). For further information see exhibition catalogue Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767-1855), portraitiste de l'Europe, Musée national des Châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, 2005-2006, p. 129, no. 63, illustrated in colour p. 47.

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