A Mayfair Pied-à-Terre: An Interior by Alidad
A Mayfair Pied-à-Terre: An Interior by Alidad
Firmin Massot
Portrait of the Empress Josephine of France (1763-1814), bust-length, wearing a white muslin dress
Lot Closed
February 2, 03:05 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Firmin Massot
Geneva 1766 - 1849
Portrait of the Empress Josephine of France (1763-1814), bust-length, wearing a white muslin dress
oil on canvas, framed as an oval
unframed: 31.4 x 27.3 cm.; 12 3/8 x 10 3/4 in.
framed: 43.5 x 42.7 cm.; 17 1/4 x 16 7/8 in.
Leopold Maurice, Geneva (according to a label in the reverse);
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Lady'), London, Sotheby’s, 9 December 2004, lot 215;
Anonymous sale, Geneva, Piguet Hotel des Ventes, 12 March 2008, lot 1196, where acquired.
Empress Josephine (née Josephine Tascher de la Pagerie) was crowned Empress by Napoleon in the Cathedral Notre-Dame on 2 December 1804. She married twice, firstly Alexandre Vicomte de Beauharnais in 1779, who she lost to the guillotine during the terror in 1794, and secondly to the then General Napoleon Bonaparte in 1796, though persistent rumours of her infidelity plagued the marriage. This is one of many versions of Massot's most prestigious portrait commission, dating from 1812 onward. Another version can be found at the Musée National des chateaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Preau (inv. no. MM. 2003, 15.1).1