Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine and Workshop

Collection of Prince Achille Murat, son of the King of Naples;

Collection of Prince Démidoff;

Sale Palais de San Donato à Florence, Me Pillet, Florence, 15 March 1880 and following days, lot 277 (as Jean-Baptiste Isabey);

Where acquired by Monsieur Hugo Finaly (at least until 1909).

E. de Basily-Callimaki, J.-B. Isabey; sa vie, son temps, 1767-1855, suivi du catalogue de l'œuvre gravée par et d'après Isabey,

Paris 1909, pp. 93-94, repr. p. 95 (as Jean-Baptiste Isabey);

C. Eisler,

Complete Catalogue of the Samuel H. Kress Collection

, Oxford 1977, pp. 352-354, no. K 2046, fig. 131 (as Attributed to Isabey);

R. Ledoux-Lebard, G. Ledoux-Lebard, C. Ledoux-Lebard, 'L'Inventaire des appartements de l'Empereur Napoléon Ier aux Tuileries', in Bulletin de la Société de l'Art français, 1952, p. 186, note 1 (as Jean-Baptiste Isabey);

P.-J. Chalençon, Napoléon. La collection, Paris 2019, pp. 46-47 (as Jean-Baptiste Isabey).

The Emperor, standing full-length in frontal view, wears the blue uniform with wide white facings of Colonel of the Imperial Guard Foot Grenadiers, a favourite uniform which he also wore in the Portrait of Napoleon in his Study painted by David in 1812 (National Gallery of Art, Washington). While David’s imposing work is an official portrait of the Emperor as head of State and legislator, the watercolour shows a more human Napoleon, posing in his study with its tall wood panelling, with documents scattered over the sofa in disorderly fashion and the welcoming warmth of a wood fire.

This important watercolour has long been considered a work by Jean-Baptiste Isabey and is described as such in the catalogue of the San Donato sale (op. cit) as well as in the monograph published by Madame Basily-Callimaki in 1909 (op.cit.) which probably took its information from the San Donato catalogue. The fine line and remarkable quality of execution could indeed suggest Isabey, although the treatment and watercolour technique are more graphic and do not have Isabey’s velvety touch.

Madame Basily-Callimaki was probably not aware of a painting of the same subject produced in about 1830 by Baron Gérard for Lord and Lady Holland. It seemed that an attribution to Gérard would prevail, especially as the Emperor’s pose and facial features are unquestionably similar to those in the portrait painted by Gérard in about 1812, Napoleon in the uniform of Colonel of the Imperial Guard Foot Grenadiers (a copy is in the Musée Napoléonien de l’île d’Aix). The watercolour was listed as ‘attributed to Gérard’ in the catalogue of the exhibition in 2021–2022 (op. cit) and a drawing on tracing paper was catalogued as ‘after Gérard’ (Musée du Louvre, Département des Arts Graphiques).

However, the rigour and precision with which the architecture and furniture are treated is closer to the style of an artist who trained as an architect than to that of Gérard. Research by Alain Latreille has confirmed this hypothesis. Gérard’s painting was in fact based on a detailed drawing of the architecture and furniture by Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, the architect who, with Charles Percier, had renovated the decoration of the Palais des Tuileries during the Empire and then the July Monarchy. Taking into consideration the high quality of the present watercolour and its detailed treatment, we believe that is none other than the preparatory drawing by Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine to which a pupil of Gérard might have added the figure of the Emperor.

Lord and Lady Holland were fervent admirers of Napoleon, whom they had met in Paris in 1802. Among other works, they owned a bronze bust of him by the sculptor Antonio Canova, dated 1815. During Napoleon’s exile on St Helena, Lady Holland regularly sent him books. Napoleon never forgot this gesture and in his will left her a gold snuff box, which Général Bertrand and the Marquis de Montholon delivered in person to Lady Holland in London, shortly after the Emperor’s death. This snuffbox, a gift from Pope Pius VII to Napoleon, is now in the British Museum.

The present location of Gérard’s painting is unknown. It may have been destroyed in the Second World War, since Holland House was damaged by bombing.

We are grateful to Alain Latreille for kindly furnishing us with information about Fontaine’s drawing and Gérard’s painting.