Portrait of Napoleon III

Description Yvon served as the principal battle-painter of France's Second Empire (1852-70), executing a number of monumental canvases for the palace at Versailles. The French emperor is shown in his prime, two years before the defeat of his forces in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871).

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
4/18/1974	Examination	examined for condition

Exhibitions

• Nineteenth Century French Salon Paintings from Southern Collections. High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh. 1983.

Provenance S. P. Avery [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; William T. Walters, Baltimore, 1876, by purchase [according to inscription by Henry Walters in 1884 catalogue]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894, by inheritance; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] At right just above the epaulet: AD. YVON; [Date] At right just above the epaulet: 1868; [Number] Painted in the spandrels: 96; [Number] On frame on old paper sticker: 761

Credit Acquired by William T. Walters, 1876