Empress Eugénie and Napoleon III, as depicted by Franz-Xaver Winterhalter

The two original portraits presented by Franz-Xaver Winterhalter at the 1855 Salon disappeared from the Tuileries Palace during the Paris Commune; the palace was left in ruins following the fire of May 1871. These two portraits have remained famous thanks to the numerous copies commissioned to adorn official buildings. Between 1855 and 1870, the State commissioned and installed some 540 portraits of Napoleon III and nearly 400 of Eugénie, based on Winterhalter’s models. The copies were produced in two versions: full-length and bust.  

The Second Empire saw the artist’s rise to prominence, having already been recognised with the Legion of Honour, which he was awarded in 1839. The Count of Nieuwerkerke, then Superintendent of Fine Arts, whose unofficial partner, Princess Mathilde, was a cousin of Napoleon III, undoubtedly facilitated Winterhalter’s introduction to the court at the Tuileries. Winterhalter’s style of painting appealed to Eugénie – a ‘coquettish and brilliant’ style, described by Théophile Gautier as reminiscent of the English.

He thus produced the ceremonial portraits of the imperial couple in 1853, with the Emperor’s portrait forming a pair with that of Eugénie at the 1855 Salon. The portrait of Empress Eugénie follows the same symbolic principles as that of her husband, with purple and gold featuring prominently. Standing in a crinoline dress, Empress Eugénie de Montijo turns towards the viewer, pointing towards the gardens of the Tuileries Palace, and this gesture of her hand is positioned just above the crown. She wears her famous pearl and diamond tiara created by Lemonnier, which originated from a set designed by Nitot for Marie-Louise between 1810 and 1812, and altered in 1819–1820. She wears the Grand Cordon of the Order of Queen Marie-Louise of Spain, which recalls the noble origins of the Countess of Teba. A faint halo surrounds her head and her white silk gown. Lace and an emerald-green cloak contrast with the ceremonial red curtains, which part as if on a theatre stage.

Many female artists have copied this portrait of Empress Eugénie. Of the sixty-three copies commissioned by the Fine Arts Administration in 1861, thirty were produced by female copyists. Louise-Adélaïde Desnos, a painter of history, genre scenes and portraits, was one of them. She was well-known enough to have her portrait painted by Louis Hersant in 1845, and exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1831 to 1853.

Whilst a few talented women managed to exhibit at the Paris Salon from 1860 onwards, an institutional career in the arts remained closed to women. The École des Beaux-Arts did not admit them until 1897, and official commissions for original works were rare. The National School of Drawing for Young Girls, founded in 1803, was at that time the only public art institution accessible to women in Paris; this was followed, from 1873 onwards, by the private Académie Julian.

Franz-Xaver Winterhalter and the Courts of Europe, 1830–1870, exhibition catalogue, Muséedu Petit Palais, 1988.

Franz-Xaver Winterhalter: Court Portraits– BetweenSplendourandElegance, exhibition catalogue, Musée du Palais de Compiègne, 30 September 2016–15 January 2017, Paris, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2016.

Catherine Gonnard, Elisabeth Lebovici, WomenArtists/Artist Women, Paris, Hazan, 2007.

Marie-Noëlle Maynard, entry ‘Portrait of Napoleon III’ [after Franz Xaver Winterhalter], in *Armand Barbès and the Revolution of 1848* [exhibition catalogue Carcassonne, Musée des Beaux-Arts, 6 November 1998 – 2 February 1999], [no place]: [no publisher], 1998.

Cécile Raynaud, entry ‘Portrait of Napoleon III’ [by Franz Xaver Winterhalter], in Berlioz. The Voice of Romanticism [exhibition catalogue. Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 17 October 2003 – 18 January 2004], Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2003.