An 1817 miniature of Napoleon by British painter Henry Bone (1755-1834) is among the highlights at Ellison Fine Art’s exhibition of portrait miniatures this month.
It is taken from the original 1816 painting by Claude Joseph Vernet, which renders the erstwhile emperor in full length on a white horse. By the time the miniature was completed, Napoleon’s supporters were working to rehabilitate him and distribute reminders of him in engraved form. Lord Byron published Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte and Stendhal began his Vie de Napoléon.
Bone was the enamel painter to three successive British monarchs. His preliminary drawing for the miniature is in the National Portrait Gallery and is thought to have been made from one of the works in the collection of Charles Kinnaird. Rendered on copper, the work is inscribed and signed on the reverse.