The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 19, 2024
Portrait of Napoléone Elisa Baciocchi, Niece of Napoleon I
1810–1812
(Italian, 1777–1850)
Overall: 113 x 39.1 cm (44 1/2 x 15 3/8 in.)
Description
To extend power across the continent, Napoleon arranged for his sisters to marry into the courts of Europe. The sitter is his niece, daughter of the Grand-Duke of Tuscany (the bee on her cup is a Napoleonic emblem). While the girl’s nakedness might startle us today, in the early 1800s depicting children nude emphasized their purity and innocence. The work takes its cues from ancient sculpture, and while the pet dog adds a note of tenderness, it also refers to Diana, goddess of the moon and hunt.- Comtesse Lecoat de Kerveguen (Paris, France)Wildenstein & Co., Inc. (New York, New York), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1979.
- Cleveland Museum of Art, “Thomas L. Fawick Memorial Collection is on View in Year in Review Exhibition,” February 7, 1980, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.orgLee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (1980): 58-99. cat. 18, p. 95, repr. p. 68 25159667
- Rococo, Revolution, Restoration. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-September 24, 1989).Year in Review: 1979. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 13-March 9, 1980).
- {{cite web|title=Portrait of Napoléone Elisa Baciocchi, Niece of Napoleon I|url=false|author=Lorenzo Bartolini|year=1810–1812|access-date=19 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1979.37