Overall height: 30cm (12in)
Patinated bronze bust of Napoleon I after Antoine Denis Chaudet (1783-1810). Raised on a stepped base. Height of bust: 12cm (5in).
The present bust is based on the marble by Chaudet, the official sculptor to the Premier Consul and Imperial family from 1802. Following Napoleon’s defeat at and exile in 1815, scorn for Napoleon gave way to admiration. Lady Holland, for instance, raised a bust of the exiled ex-dictator on a nine foot high column in her garden at Holland House, above an inscription that reminded fellow admirers that on a 'distant, sea-girt island, harsh men the hero keep'. The present bronze further reflects the revival of enthusiasm for Napoleon that followed the return of his mortal remains to France in 1840 and continued to flourish under the Second Empire (1852-70).