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Napoleon II
by Krafft
24 March
Napoleon II was twelve when Peter Krafft painted his portrait. He poses in the uniform of a sergeant of the imperial
Austrian infantry against the backdrop of the Bellaria, one of the wings of the Hofburg Palace (the residence of his
great-grandfather, Marie-Antoinette's brother-in-law, Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies and King of Naples). A slender
figure with a rosy complexion, his blonde curls hidden by a large kepi, the boy closely resembled his mother, Marie-
Louise. His taste for uniform undoubtedly came from his
father, Napoleon. His title as "King of Rome" associated the
boy with the Eternal City and its symbolism and history.
When he posed proudly for this portrait (sold at Fontainebleau
on 24 March by the Osenet auction house), the
young Napoleon II had not seen his father since April 1814,
when he was taken to Vienna with his mother. Grandson of
the Emperor of Austria, Francis I, and raised as an Austrian
prince with the archdukes, he was very drawn to the military;
his desire for a career in the army led him to train as an
officer in late 1826. Two years later, when he was
promoted to captain of his Tyrolean cavalry regiment,
Marie-Louise gave him the Sabre of the Pyramids. In 1832,
his health began to deteriorate as he succumbed to tuberculosis.
By 15 April, the doctors believed him beyond all
hope. It was all a far cry from the day when the cannons of
Les Invalides fired 101 shots to announce the birth of the
imperial heir, and from the plans for the palace on the
Chaillot hill, the future Trocadéro, the imposing house
assigned to the child from birth. On 24 June, Marie-
Louise arrived in Vienna, when her son was already far
gone. On 22 July, Napoleon François Charles Joseph
Bonaparte died. He had been Emperor of France for two
days, from 4 to 6 April 1814. Anne Foster
>
Peter Krafft (1780-1856), Portrait of the Duke of Reichstadt (Napoleon II)
in the white uniform of the first infantry regiment, 1823, oil on canvas,
220 x 140 cm. €200,000/250,000.
UPCOMING AUCTIONS THE MAGAZINE
HD