The Empress Josephine
by Pierre-Louis Bouvier,
signed & dated 1814.

The Geneva miniaturist Bouvier was friendly with Joséphine, painting her several times. The following portraits of the Empress by Bouvier are recorded: an oval enamel dated 1812 at Malmaison, a small rectangular oil painting, a larger circular version of this portrait signed and dated "Geneva 1812," now in a New York private collection, with its replica in the Louvre (see Jean-Richard, Miniatures sur ivorie, Musée du Louvre, Paris 1994, no. 72.) This image is purported to be the final image of the Empress.

The oval miniature is set in a later dye-stamped gilt metal brooch frame with leaf border. It is signed lower left [Bo]uvier/ [18]12.

1 5/8 inches (4.1 cm) high.

Pierre-Louis Bouvier (1766-1836), who studied with Fabre and Vestier painted in oil and enamels in addition to ivory miniatures. His first portrait of the Empress Josephine was exhibited at the Salon in 1808. Mme de Staël sat to him in 1816. Bouvier engraved the portrait himself. In 1828 Bouvier was appointed director of the school of painting at the Rath Museum, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Provenance: Christie's Geneva,14 October, 1998.
Private Collection, New York.

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