Antoine-Jean Gros, called Baron Gros

Collection Jean-Baptiste Delestre (no. 88 in his Baron Gros' drawings book);

Collection Gaston Delestre, in 1936;

By descent;

Sale Collection Gaston Delestre Deux siècles de passion familiale, Artcurial, Paris, 22 March 2017, lot 17;

Where acquired by the present owner

Napoléon, l'Empereur sous la verrière du Grand Palais : La collection Pierre-Jean Chalençon, cat. exh. Grand Palais, Paris 2018, pp. 23 and 60-61;

P.-J. Chalençon, Napoléon. La collection, Paris 2019, p. 16.

Paris, Petit Palais, Gros, ses amis, ses élèves, May-July 1936, no. 478.

After the success of Bonaparte on the Pont d’Arcole at the Salon of 1801, Gros was commissioned to paint a portrait of Bonaparte as First Consul. Napoleon followed its progress closely and was pleased with this official portrait showing him as chief of state rather than a military leader. This spectacular painting, dated Year X (September 1801-September 1802), is of remarkable pictorial quality. It was most likely given by Bonaparte to the Second Consul, Jean-Jacques-Régis Cambacérès, and is now in the Musée de la Légion d’Honneur in Paris. It would serve as a model for a whole series of consular portraits by Gros himself and then by other painters.

The present important drawing is probably a preparatory study for the first version. There are identical elements: the pose, the consular uniform and the gesture of Napoleon’s right hand pointing at three documents rolled out on a table covered with a cloth. On the left, there is a very lightly sketched pen case which appears in the finished work.

Another version by Gros, probably the second one, is dated Year XI. It very likely belonged to Jean-Victor Moreau, General of the Army of the Rhine. It displays some variations from the first version and therefore from the present drawing, including in the uniform and the position of the right hand, holding a pen (Christie’s sale, London, 8 July 2005).

Three other portraits in the consular series were commissioned from Gros himself, and were intended for several large cities, some recently annexed, for propaganda purposes. According to a memorandum from Vivant-Denon dated 19 February 1806, he was commissioned to paint those for Lyon, Rouen and Lille, while the execution of seven additional portraits was entrusted to other artists: Dunkirk fell to Robert Lefèvre, Brussels to Meynier, Ghent to Benoist, Bruges to Vien fils, Blois to Dufau, Antwerp to Greuze. Ingres, for his part, was responsible for the Lille replica, that of Gros finally returning to Paris. All are inspired by Gros's composition while including a certain number of variations.

Today, the location of the three portraits painted by Gros is unknown. Were they destroyed? Descriptions exist of the Lyon version, with Napoleon seated, and of the Rouen portrait, in which ships can be seen in the background. Unfortunately, there is presently no information about the third version.

A number of copies after Gros’s masterpiece were made, mostly before the First Consul became Emperor in 1804 (see lot 8).