The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries

Painted in 1812 by Jacques-Louis David, the first painter of the Empire, The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries shows the ruler at the desk where he worked through the night, the clock reading 4:13, the candle burned low, the sword and the great code of laws — the Napoleonic Code — laid out as the instruments of his reign. David, the preeminent Neoclassical painter and the master of the great canvases of the Revolution, here fuses official grandeur with startling intimacy: Napoleon’s stockings are wrinkled, his coat is dishevelled, and the whole picture is built from the deep crimson and gold of the imperial costume against the green of the study. It is the definitive image of the emperor as sleepless administrator, and one of the most famous portraits in the history of art. The painting is held in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.