Robert Jacques François Lefèvre ranked alongside David and Gérard as one of the most celebrated and prolific French portrait painters of the Napoleonic period. Enjoying the protection and patronage of Dominique Vivant-Denon, the first director of the Louvre museum, Lefèvre became Napoleon’s official portrait painter. In addition to creating many portraits of the Emperor and the imperial family, the artist was also much in demand by the denizens of Paris society, portraying many of the most significant and stylish figures of his age.
