Napoleon as First Consul, Frontispiece Portrait, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827

An original antique lithograph portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, the frontispiece of Madou's Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The title "PREMIER CONSUL" is lettered in open capitals below the image. The young Bonaparte is shown at bust length, his head turned to the viewer's left and his eyes looking sideways, with long unpowdered hair falling to a high standing collar. His dark coat has its collar and lapels embroidered with leaves, and a white stock shows at the neck. The portrait is drawn in soft crayon and fades out into the paper in an oval vignette, with no border line.

There is no caption on this sheet. The credit "Madou del." (Madou drew it) is lettered under the lower left of the image and "Lith. de Jobard" under the lower right, naming the draftsman and the press that printed the stone.

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

Bonaparte became First Consul of the French Republic after the coup of 18 Brumaire, 9 November 1799, which overthrew the Directory. The Constitution of the Year VIII placed executive power in his hands as the first of three consuls; he was made consul for life in 1802 and proclaimed Emperor of the French in May 1804. The upright portrait opens a volume otherwise made up of oblong narrative scenes, each with its own lettered title and script caption.

Uncolored as issued, the sheet suits a plain dark frame with a wide off-white mat.

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