Height: 25cm (9.8in)
Patinated bronze. The present bust of Napoleon I (1769-1821) derives from the Neoclassical model of herm form (with the shoulders cut off and straight sides, in imitation of Roman imperial portraits) by the French sculptor Antoine-Denis Chaudet (1763-1810).
Chaudet made his original plaster model for this portrait in 1799. His final marble version of 1804 was Napoleon’s preferred image of himself. Moreover the Chaudet’s model became the official portrait of the newly crowned Emperor and was widely-reproduced, notably in hard porcelain at the Sèvres factory from 1805.