Empress Josephine, Wife of Napoleon I

Description This miniature is likely a copy after Isabey's miniature of the Empress Josephine of ca. 1808. She is show wearing a white standing "Medici" collar, one of her favorite garments. Her costume, which is white with gold frogging, generally recalls Renaissance styles. Gauzy veils flow around her head and over her bodice as if blown by the wind. A version of this miniature can be found in the Wallace Collection, London.

Provenance Collection of the Marquis de Biron [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; probably Philippe Sichel, Paris [date and mode of acqisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, probably 1892, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] At right: Isabey

Credit Acquired via George Lucas from Philippe Sichel, Paris, 1892