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The Coronation of Napoleon
Le Sacre de Napoléon
Napoleon crowns Josephine in Notre-Dame, the Pope seated behind him, on 2 December 1804.
Napoleon had already set the crown on his own head; David chose the next moment, when the new Emperor crowns the kneeling Josephine, with Pope Pius VII raising his hand behind him. Some 150 people are in it, most of them real portraits.
David was Napoleon's First Painter, and took three years over it. Napoleon's mother is in the gallery in the middle although she stayed away from the ceremony. Almost ten metres wide, it is the second biggest painting in the Louvre, after the Wedding at Cana. Stand before it in 3D ›
More in The Louvre
Mona LisaLeonardo da Vinci, c. 1503–1519
The Wedding at CanaPaolo Veronese, 1563
The Raft of the MedusaThéodore Géricault, 1818–1819
Liberty Leading the PeopleEugène Delacroix, 1830
Venus de MiloProbably Alexandros of Antioch, c. 150–125 BC
Winged Victory of SamothraceUnknown Greek sculptor, c. 190 BC
The Virgin of the RocksLeonardo da Vinci, c. 1483–1486
The Oath of the HoratiiJacques-Louis David, 1784
La Grande OdalisqueJean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1814
