Banquet for Bonaparte and General Moreau, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827

An original antique lithograph from Jean-Baptiste Madou's Vie de Napoléon, printed at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered "BANQUET DONNÉ AUX G.x BONAPARTE ET MOREAU." in open capitals above the image. The scene is a vast domed church interior with fluted pilasters and tall arches, hung with trophies of flags and standards. At the left a seated statue rises on a high stepped pedestal, framed by more flags, and long tables laid with cloths and tableware run down the nave, crowded with guests. In the foreground at the center Bonaparte, in uniform and bicorne, stands facing a general in a plumed hat, while civilians in long coats talk in small groups to either side.

The caption below the image reads: "Le général Moreau assiste à un banquet offert à Napoléon, par le corps legislatif, dans le temple de la victoire." In English: "General Moreau attends a banquet offered to Napoleon by the legislative body, in the temple of Victory."

Vie de Napoléon was published at Brussels in 1827 by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, éditeur propriétaire. Its title page describes a text written by a society of men of letters from new documents dictated and corrected by Napoleon himself on Saint Helena, with plates lithographed by Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877) after the first painters of the French school. This plate belongs to the first volume.

The banquet took place on 15 Brumaire, Year VIII (6 November 1799), in the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris, which under the Directory served as the Temple of Victory. It was given by members of the two legislative councils in honor of Bonaparte, newly returned from Egypt, and of General Jean Victor Moreau, then the most celebrated of the Republic's other commanders. Three days later the coup of 18 Brumaire began, and Moreau, who took part in it, commanded the guard on the Luxembourg palace.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.