Art provenance through the lens of history
Searching for the date of creation of a particular Napoleon piece from my collection
Whom do you see here?
I have come across Napoleon name for quite a few times lately — could that be a sign, I thought? So I decided to share with you one piece from my collection directly related to the subject and his epoch.
This is a so called anamorphosis — an image that tricks your eye this way or another. This particular piece consists of two portraits — Emperor Napoleon I of France and his son, Duke of Reichstadt (also known as Napoleon II). You see one or another depending on the angle you are looking from.
I saw this lot in flesh on a renown Empire era auction sale in Fontainebleau a couple of years ago. This is quite a rare artwork survived to our days in its initial setting. However, there are several missing pieces in its story.
The thing that was a puzzle to me was the date of creation. Let’s try to make a short investigation.
My first assumption is always the fact that portrait or other real life event depiction was made during the very same period of time the person lived or event happened. This is the main distinction of the genuine artwork. There were of course later copies of earlier works — they all have the reason to exist, but that’s not the case for this story.
So, let’s examine our sitters.
Napoleon I himself was a highly popular personality ever since his took over the French throne in the beginning of 19th century. His portraits were painted, printed (as lithos) and widely distributed in all times. So it may be quite hard to set the date for this anamorphosis judging by its left side portrait of Emperor.
Let’s look closer at his heir, King of Rome and Duke of Reichstadt, visible from the right angle of the picture. He was Napoleon I only legitimate son born in 1811 in the second marriage to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria.
In 1815 he did briefly took over the title of the next French Emperor Napoleon II however never ever actually reigned the country. He lived with his mother in exile in Austria under the title of Duke of Reichstadt (since 1818) until his early death in 1832.
In his short life he tried to pursue a military career — that’s why we see him here in the white uniform of the Austrian army.
This quite a skillful litho is based on his rare portrait by Austrian miniature painter Moritz Michael Daffinger that was obviously completed sometime around 1830. Could that then be that this anamorphosis was completed somewhere around this year to reinstate his rights to the throne?
Another version that came to my mind is that this double artwork in question was completed somewhere in between 1852 and 1860. Why so?
It was the period of the Second French Empire when Napoleon II cousin, Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, became the next Emperor and in acknowledgement of his brief reign called himself Napoleon III.
The epoch of the beginning of 19th century was back into fashion and this anamorphosis could have symbolized the consistent succession of the French throne and integrity of the imperial family.
In this case the first version seems less valid to me. Young Napoleon II lived in Austria under the name of Franz and chances are he didn’t know of his ephemeral title until his later years. Moreover, political landscape at those times controlled his hypothetical allegations to the French throne and even limited his travel and military plans.
So that leaves me with a potential creation date of 1850’s. Would you agree?
This is an example of my art collecting homework on an interesting piece of art to unravel its creation history and then provenance. You may use this logic and assumption base method on your own intriguing investigations.
And what would be your thoughts? Do you happen to bump into this kind of anamorphosis on the art market or museum?
*UPDATE: just identiified the signature of Antoine Maurin (1793–1860). The proper portrait of Duc de Reichstadt is thought to be completed in the 1840s. Which contributes to the version that the anamorphosis was made some time later in the 1850s.
