Two studies of Napoleon Bonaparte mounted on a charger

Drawn in preparation for Regnault's painting of Bonaparte at Boulogne, a large portrait (291 x 235 cm.) of the First Consul commissioned by the consul Lebrun in 1804 and now in the Museo Napoleonico in Havana, Cuba. The portrait shows Napoleon in July-August 1804 while staying at Pont-au-Briques near Bologne planning the invasion of Britain, an ambitious plan which was later abandonned. He is shown mounted on his horse Fayoume, a favourite charger named after the desert oasis southwest of Cairo notable for its well preserved Coptic and Pharoaonic sites which Napoleon may have visited on the Egyptian campaign of 1798-99.
Another double study for the same composition is at Orléans (Entre lumières & romantisme. Dessins du musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, exhib. cat., Orléans, 2006-07, no. 53).