Portrait of Letizia Bonaparte

Portrait of Letizia Bonaparte
Artist	François Gérard
Year	1802–1803
Type	Oil on canvas, portrait painting
Dimensions	210.8 cm × 129.8 cm (83.0 in × 51.1 in)
Location	Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Portrait of Letizia Bonaparte or Madame Mère is a c.1803 portrait painting by the French artist François Gérard.[1][2] It depicts the Corsican noblewoman Letizia Bonaparte, best known as the mother of the emperor of France Napoleon.[3] Several of her other children, part of the Bonaparte dynasty, acquired royal status during the Napoleonic era. Gérard, a former student of Jacques-Louis David, painted many members of the extended Bonaparte family. After the Bourbon Restoration of 1814 he switched to painting Louis XVIII and members of the House of Bourbon.

She is portrayed at full-length seated in a well-furnished apartment overlooking the Tuileries Palace in Paris, with a bust of Napoleon beside her. The painting was taken to Italy by the sitter's grandaughter Mathilde Bonaparte when she married, Today it is in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, having been acquired in 1988 with the support of the Art Fund.[4]

See also

• Napoleon I as Emperor, an 1805 painting by Gérard

References

1. Freund p.63
2. Citizens and Kings: Portraits in the Age of Revolution 1760-1830. Harry N. Abrams, 2007. p.323
3. Gott, & Huguenaud p.200
4. https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/5715

Bibliography

• Freund, Amy Elisabeth. Revolutionary Likenesses: Portraiture and Politics in France, 1789-1804. University of California, Berkeley, 2005.
• Gott, Ted & Huguenaud, Karine. Napoleon: Revolution to Empire. National Gallery of Victoria, 2012.