Arts News
New Napoleon portrait by David discovered in Germany
By DPA
Mar 18, 2008, 16:31 GMT

Kassel, Germany - A previously unknown portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte by Jacques-Louis David, the French artist who painted some of the best known images of the emperor, has been discovered in a provincial German museum.

Thorsten Smidt, curator of a special show on Napoleonic rule in Germany, said Tuesday the unfinished oil painting had belonged to the public collection in Kassel, central Germany, for many decades but had previously been ascribed to an obscure artist.

David, who died in 1825, painted Napoleon repeatedly. The Kassel picture shows Napoleon in the red regalia of an emperor, but with the sceptre only vaguely sketched and the other symbol of imperial authority, an orb, incomplete.

Smidt said David had been refused when he asked to borrow the two insignia to paint them.

The exhibition at the Fridericianum Museum from Wednesday to June 29, is devoted to Jerome Bonaparte, the emperor's youngest brother, who was created king of Westphalia and ruled a large part of northern Germany from 1807 to 1813.

Napoleonic rule has a mixed legacy in Germany, where it was unpopular yet achieved major improvements in public administration.