Jules Rigo

Examined under glass. As visible in the catalogue illustration, there is some brown staining in the upper right quadrant and and in the upper left, and some scattered minor brown spots in the upper left quadrant. Apart from this, the work is overall in good condition. Held in a gold-painted coved and fluted frame, under glass.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The French General Horace Sebastiani (1772-1851) distinguished himself militarily in Napoleon's Italian Campaign of the 1790s. Having been promoted to Général de division following the Battle of Austerlitz of 1805, Napoleon appointed him French ambassador to the Porte of Constantinople. His task was to weaken Turkey's ties with Russia and Great Britain in favour of a Franco-Turkish alliance, a mission which he accomplished with great success.

When on 7 December 1806 hostilities broke out between the Turks and Russians following the Russian invasion of Wallachia and Moldovia, the British demanded an end to French interference in Constantinople and Sebastiani's departure, anchoring on the Bosphorus and threatening to bombard the city. During the lull that followed, Sebastiani set about mounting a resistance. A popular uprising was organised, uniting Greeks, Armenians, Jews and all the French officers in the area. They actively set up an armed defence around the Seraglio and lined the banks of the Bosphorus with artillery. Constantinople was successfully defended against the British fleet and Sebastiani received the Order of the Crescent from Selim.

Following his death in 1851 it is likely that Sebastiani's descendants commissioned this depiction of him at the height of his diplomatic and military career. As a son of Michel Rigo (a painter and member of the Institut d'Égypte who had travelled with Napoleon to Egypt) and a student of the battle painter and Orientalist Léon Cogniet, Jules Rigo would have been well placed to take up the commission. Both painting and drawing powerfully convey the mood of urgent co-operation between the Turkish and French armies and commemorate the successful defence of the city.