Sevres biscuit bust of Napoleon
1808
27cm
Sevres, Manufacture Imperial
Alexandre Brachard
Front inscribed << NAPOLEON >> and << Sevres >>
On the left incised << A.B.12.fev.8   L. >> and << No 2. >>
Reverse incised << CHAUDET >>  
Produced in two sizes at Sèvres, these busts were  given away as official and as personal gifts by Napoleon. The original model by Denis-Antoine Chaudet (1763-1810) was made in 1804 and the first biscuit example by Sevres on 27 January 1805. In an agreement signed on 4 September 1804 between Alexandre Brongniart and Antoine-Denis Chaudet, Chaudet undertook to deliver to the Sèvres factory a larger than life plaster bust of the Emperor; he also authorized the factory to take as many casts or moulds in porcelain as required. In return he was to receive the sum of 1,200 francs. This bust replaced several earlier representations of Bonaparte by Louis-Simon Boizot, some of which depicted him as a general and later as first consul. Chaudet's idealised 'classical' bust aimed to flatter Napoleon by aligning him with Roman prototypes, and in this aim he was successful as the portrait was officially adopted under the Empire.