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The Triumph of Bonaparte
Pierre Paul Prud'hon (French, 1758-1823)
1801
- Medium
- Black chalk with stumping, heightened with touches of white chalk, on blue laid paper, laid down on ivory Japanese paper
- Classification
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions
- 35 × 63 cm (13 13/16 × 24 13/16 in.)
- Culture
- France
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The Triumph of Bonaparte celebrates the French defeat of Austria and the signing of the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801. Napoleon, as first consul of the Republic, stands in a chariot flanked by Victory and Peace. The Muses precede the chariot, while the Arts—painting, sculpture, and architecture—follow behind. A work of unbridled propaganda, the drawing is also a call for Napoleon to support the arts. Prud’hon’s idiosyncratic style blends a frieze-like arrangement of figures and overt references to ancient Rome (hallmarks of the period’s classicizing tendencies) with a soft sensuality inspired by Leonardo da Vinci and other Italian Renaissance masters.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
