The oldest known sculpture of Napoleon Bonaparte, crafted in the wake of his early military victories and then lost after his defeat at Waterloo, has been rediscovered two centuries on, reports The Times.
The marble bust was commissioned by Napoleon in Italy in 1797 to capitalise on his recent triumphs and signal his intent to “undertake a campaign of visual promotion”.
The artist Giuseppe Franchi depicted Napoleon as bare-chested to signify his “status as a great man of history”. His work was later exhibited in Geneva in a hall of busts of Roman emperors by the city’s fathers, who hoped to impress Napoleon on his arrival.
With Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the sculpture rapidly lost its lustre and later that year was valued at around £55. It was finally sold “to an Englishman” in 1818 for about £24 and sent from Geneva to England.
It then disappeared without trace until 2019 when an unknown buyer bought it at a French art market, where it was described as a bust of a man in the 19th century empire style.
The new owner contacted art historians to learn more about the sculpture’s history. Last year Sotheby’s auction house asked Professor Olivier Ihl at the Sciences Po Grenoble Institute in France to lead a study.
With the help of archival documents, examinations of Franchi’s other sculptures and existing portraits of Napoleon from the period, Professor Ihl concluded it was of the former emperor, making it the oldest existing sculpture of him.