Louis Lafitte

Most probably, vente après décès de Lafitte, atelier et cabinet, 18 December 1828, lot 52 (acquired for 45F by François B., agent active in the 1820s). 

Rome, Museo Napoleonico, 1796-1797 Da Montenotte a Campoformio : la rapida marcia di Napoleone Bonaparte, February-April 1997, no.59.

V. Mathis, Louis Lafitte, un peintre d’histoire de la Révolution à la Restauration, thesis, University of Rouen Normandie, 2020, described p. 161, listed p. 1149, no. 25.

This fine and well-developed sketch is a preparatory work for the huge composition (334 x 252 cm) commissioned from Louis Lafitte in 1809 to decorate the Salle de l’Empereur at the Sénat Conservateur, an advisory body set up to protect the Constitution (now the Palais du Luxembourg). The painting is now in the Musée Napoléonien, Ile d’Aix. The other artists who took part in these important decorative works were Carle Vernet, Gros, Prud’hon, Regnault and Meynier. The series was supposed to be complete by the time of the 1810 Salon (which presumably explains the incorrect inscription on the back of our painting) but only Gros and Carle Vernet met this very tight deadline. According to a letter that Lafitte sent to the Sénat on 24 June 1812, he had by then only completed a painted sketch on canvas. This was certainly the present work.

The final painting was only completed at the very end of 1813. Lafitte’s delay (and that of the other artists), as well as the political situation, prevented installation of the decorative scheme, and the large canvas was still in Lafitte’s studio when he died.

The composition of the sketch is practically identical to that of the painting in the Musée Napoléonien, apart from the slightly tighter framing of the finished work and some significant differences in the colour and lighting: the sketch is lit by a summer sun which shines on the white coat of the magnificent horse on the right and on Napoleon’s red jacket, a splash of bright, warm colour at the centre of the canvas. The supple brushstroke, the movement of the horseman on the right, the intensity of Napoleon’s gaze and his still youthful features bring the sketch to life, distinguishing it from the final composition, whose colours are more restrained and which bears the cool, static imprint of the academic style.

Constrained by the very vertical format, Lafitte could not illustrate the celebrations that accompanied this historic event. He therefore reinvented them, arranging them around Napoleon in a close-up view. Standing beside the altar of the nation, wearing a tricolour sash and a bicorn hat, the general is solemnly indicating the tablet of the Federation of the Cisalpine Republic, which had just been set in place. He is surrounded by a small number of figures, representing the many Italian delegates and the army’s commanding officers who were present at the inauguration.

In the foreground on the left, an axe-bearing sapper, his arm outstretched, swears allegiance to the Constitution on behalf of his unit, outside the frame. On the right, an Italian dragoon, mounted on a splendid prancing horse, seems to be springing into the picture, with his battalion invisible but close behind, brandishing flags. The inverted pyramid formed by these two prominent figures focuses attention on the young general, the V-shape symbolizing victory or ‘vainqueur’ (conqueror). Behind him, two dignitaries in white-plumed hats and a few important guests fill the remaining space on the left (including one of Napoleon’s sisters, Caroline, who turns her head towards the viewer, and probably another sister, Pauline). The background, suggested in the sketch, is an allusion to the fact that the proclamation took place in the immense open space of the Lazaretto in Milan, recognizable from its arcades. It is crammed with a crowd of officers, supporters and Milanese citizens, who have come in droves to witness this memorable scene.

General Bonaparte proclaiming the Cisalpine Republic in Milan on 9 July 1797 is a good example of the Imperial propaganda machine’s objectives which, at the height of the Empire, sought to emphasize Napoleon’s role as a legislator and peacemaker in the lands he had conquered. Additionally, the theme of the oath, symbolizing patriotic fervour and loyalty to the commander, had been popular at the time of the Revolution since The Tennis Court Oath by David (1791–1792, Musée de l’Histoire de France, Château de Versailles, inv. MV 5841) and remained a subject frequently represented during the Empire, as in the case of David’s Distribution of the Eagle Standards, exhibited at the 1810 Salon (Musée de l’Histoire de France, Château de Versailles, inv. MV 2278), which may have been a source of inspiration for Lafitte.

Two preparatory drawings were identified in the thesis by Véronique Mathis (op. cit., vol. 3, p. 162): a Portrait of Napoleon datable to about 1809 (Institut de France, Bibliothèque Thiers, inv. DM001 bis) and a Portrait of Caroline Murat (sale ‘L’Empire à Fontainebleau’, Fontainebleau, 20 November 2016, lot 440; present location unknown). An engraving by Ambroise Tardieu, c. 1821–1823, was used to illustrate the series Victoires, conquêtes, désastres, revers et guerres civiles des Français de 1792 à 1815, published by Pancoucke, 1817–1821, 27 vol.