After Jacques-Louis David

C. Wright, A Catalogue of the Old Master Paintings in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. J.V. Feather at Bridley Manor, Surrey, 1974, pp. 6, 26-27, 29, cat. no. 6, reproduced p. 27 (as Jacques-Louis David).

The canvas is relined. Overall this picture presents well to the naked eye with good retention of color and detail. There are a couple of visible losses to the paint surface which have gone down to the preparation layer including a loss on the sitters right hand as well as his left cuff, and in an area just above this along his red mantle as well as a couple of small losses along the right edge of the canvas. There is also a white streak of some foreign organic material which can certainly be easily removed measuring about 2 inches along his cloak. All of these are visible in the catalogue. UV light reveals some strengthening underneath an older varnish along the right edge from top to bottom, as well as in the sitters hair and in the left middle back around and along the left edge as well as in a small area in the middle of his clock. The isolated damages could be repaired and then the painting could be hung in its current condition. In a carved gilt wood frame.
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This painting follows the composition of Jacques Louis David's celebrated portrait of Pope Pius VII now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.¹  Painted in 1804, the picture was commissioned by Napoleon for the sitter, along with a second version that he and the Empress Josephine kept in their collection.  Autograph versions exist at Versailles and Fontainbleau as well.²


1. Oil on panel, 86 by 71 cm. See A. Schnapper, David: Témoin de son temps, Paris 1980, p. 246, reproduced p. 244, fig. 150.  
2. See C. Wright, under Literature, p. 29.