Two new paintings for the Musée Napoleon I in Fontainebleau

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1. Robert Lefèvre (1755-1830)
Portrait of Marshal Oudinot,
Duke of Reggio
, 1810
Oil on canvas - 32.5 x 24.1 cm
Fontainebleau, Musée Napoléon Ier
Photo: Ader Nordmann & Dominique
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23/4/23 - Acquisitions - Fontainebleau, Musée Napoléon I - Decidedly better inspired when it comes to illustrating the First Empire than to evoke court life with copies (see article), the Château de Fontainebleau could hardly have missed such a vivid sketch by Robert Lefèvre (ill. 1) offered at Ader Nordmann & Dominique at the Hôtel Drouot with part of the Talabardon & Gautier gallery collection (see the news items of 11/1/23 and 19/3/23). Presumably painted in 1810, this small painting, wisely preempted for €10,000 hammer price, prepares the large full-length portrait of Marshal Oudinot now kept - in reserve, it seems - at the Château de Versailles. Nicolas-Charles Oudinot (1767-1847) had to wait until 1809 to obtain his baton, even though he had been made a count the previous year: it was his behaviour at the Battle of Wagram that motivated Napoleon to add him to his list of marshals and to confer on him the title of Duke of Reggio. If we trust the inscription on the stretcher of the small canvas, it was painted in 1810, which is consistent with its probable status as a presentation sketch. Completed in the summer of 1811, the large painting was presented at the Salon of 1812 - under number 781 - before moving to the Salon des Maréchaux in the Tuileries Palace.

2. Robert Lefèvre (1755-1830)
Portrait of Marshal Oudinot,
Duke of Reggio
, 1811
Oil on canvas - 218 x 141 cm
Versailles, Musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon
Photo: RMN-GP/G. Blot
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Located at the heart of imperial power, the salon in the central pavilion of the former palace of the kings had been transformed from 1805 onwards and enriched with busts but above all with large full-length painted portraits of the glories of the Grande Armée. These immense paintings, in a standard format - 215 x 140 cm - correspond to the monumental dimensions of this emblematic room, which was gradually filled with works commissioned from numerous portrait artists by Vivant Denon. He had already called on Robert Lefèvre in 1805 for the portrait of Marshal Augereau, also kept at Versailles. More dramatic and vivid than the final version (ill. 2), the sketch offers a similar overall composition, in which the "Bayard of the French Army" poses proudly in the ceremonial dress of a marshal of the Empire, wearing a command sash and the large red silk cordon of the Legion of Honour. On the left, the marshal’s ordinance holds a spirited horse by the bridle while a fight rages on the right. Impassive, Oudinot seems indifferent to the clash of arms as well as to the two cannonballs that land near his boots. Sold in November 2014 at Brissonneau, a third version of this composition is a ricordo, a reduced copy offered to the de La Chaise family: the glowing flames visible on the sketch are absent, as they are on the large format intended for the Tuileries. Remaining in the artist’s studio until his death, the small sketch was probably bought by Marshal Oudinot at his sale after his death in March 1831 before passing to his descendants, who kept it in the Sarthe, at the Château de Malicorne, until recent years. The painting was not, however, part of the disastrous sale of the family’s memorabilia orchestrated by Artcurial in June 2017 (see article) but will fit in ideally with the future rooms of the Musée Napoléon I, whose ambitious redevelopment over two floors is eagerly awaited by 2028.


3. Jean-Frédéric Schall (1752-1825)
The General Lacombe Saint Michel liberating the Ligurian prisoners of Tunis, c. 1805
Oil on canvas - 82 x 100 cm
Fontainebleau, Musée Napoleon
Photo: Osenat
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Not stopping there, the indefatigable Christophe Beyeler also managed to retain a more original painting (ill. 3), which was also preempted for €10,000 hammer price [1] at Osenat in Fontainebleau on 2 April. The episode of the liberation of the Ligurian prisoners in Tunis in 1799, as well as the figure of General Jean-Pierre Lacombe Saint Michel (1753-1812), are certainly known only to specialists, who may also be surprised to see such a scene under the brush of Schall, known for his rather mawkish light scenes and not for his historical painting. Lacombe Saint-Michel was a deputy of the Tarn and a member of the Convention before being promoted to brigadier general. He was sent to Naples as ambassador under the Directoire, but the deterioration of diplomatic relations and the arrival of Admiral Nelson forced him to clear out. Leaving the Parthenopean city, his ship was taken by corsairs who led him to Tunis. The local authorities immediately set him free but expressed their intention to seize the ship and crew, before the general firmly assured them that they were his prisoners and that he intended to keep them. Faced with his determination, the bey of Tunis gave in and released the general, who is recognised as being accompanied by his wife, as well as the passengers and crew.


4. Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835)
Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa, 1804
Oil on canvas - 523 x 715 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo : RMN-GP/F. Raux
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This is the scene Schall depicted: one can easily guess the joy of the unfortunate people, relieved, who cheer their liberators. On the far right, a moustachioed prisoner raises his hands to the general, while a black slave wearing a turban is in the process of releasing his fetters. The artist did not hesitate to dramatise the episode by showing hands passing through the gates in the foreground, towards which the general’s wife is turning. The painting is perfectly identified in the catalogue of the sale, entrusted to the experts of the Cabinet Turquin, but it remains difficult to date it, even if the staff of the Château de Fontainebleau suggest that it was commissioned several years after the episode depicted, noting the presence of the cross of the Legion of Honour and the Iron Crown, which suggest that it was painted after the spring of 1805. The work is irresistibly reminiscent of Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa (ill. 4) unveiled by Gros at the Salon of 1804, which may have inspired Schall’s composition [2] .

5. François-André Vincent (1746-1816)
Allégory of the liberation of the slaves of Algiers by Jérôme Bonaparte, 1806
Oil on canvas - 37.4 x 45.5 cm
Count Charles-André Colonna Walewski
Photo : Galerie Talabardon & Gautier
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A figure as interesting as he was forgotten, a regicide parliamentarian, a soldier and a diplomat, Lacombe Saint-Michel certainly deserved his place in the Musée Napoleon I at Fontainebleau, especially as the episode depicted in this painting to his glory resonates singularly with the history of the château, which for a long time housed Trinitarian monks whose Order was dedicated to the redemption of Christian captives who had fallen into the hands of the Barbarians. Installed in Fontainebleau by King Saint Louis, they were expelled by the Revolution, but the Trinity chapel and the Mathurins courtyard are reminders of their presence. For his part, Napoleon himself took an interest in the fate of the prisoners in the prisons of Algiers and Tunis after the annexation of Genoa and Liguria to the Empire in 1805. As Christophe Beyeler explained, the aim was to convince these new subjects of the benefits their sovereign was capable of bestowing on them: once released from the barbaric prisons, these Christian captives were able to return to their native shores and extol the merits of the Empire. In 1806, François-André Vincent was commissioned to create an Allegory of the Liberation of the Slaves of Algiers by Jérôme Bonaparte to decorate his residence in Cassel, a town which it never left, but a sketch (ill. 5) was offered in 2011 by the gallery Talabardon & Gautier (see article): although Fontainebleau, nor any other French museum, was then able to acquire it, it went to a private Swiss collection which is none other than that of Count Charles-André Colonna Walewski. The notice of the work on the website of the Walewski collection recalls that it had been offered by the artist to Marie-Gabrielle Capet, who stayed with him after the death of his wife, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. With the acquisition of Schall’s painting, Fontainebleau can console itself for the departure of Vincent’s painting abroad, while finally being able to evoke this story in the Musée Napoléon I. A few blocks away, in the Galerie de Diane, the rare visitors allowed to stroll on the fragile parquet floor can admire François-Marius Granet’s Saint Louis redeeming the French prisoners at Damietta, a large canvas recounting an episode of the seventh crusade commissioned during the Restoration.

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