Antoine-Jean Gros was a French painter of historical subjects. He was granted the title of Baron Gros in 1824.
Paintings by Antoine-Jean Gros
Bonaparte at the Pont d'Arcole (1796)
Bonaparte at the Pont d’Arcole (French: Bonaparte au Pont d’Arcole) is an oil-on-canvas painting executed in 1796 by the French artist Antoine-Jean Gros. It depicts an episode during the Battle of Arcole in November 1796, with General Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops to storm the bridge.
The painting presents a three-quarter-length image of Bonaparte, holding the flagstaff of the Armée d'Italie in his left hand and his sword in his right – on its blade is the inscription Bonaparte, Armée d'Italie. He is dressed in the dark blue trousers and tunic of a general of the First French Republic, with a gold-embroidered red collar. Beneath them he wears a white shirt and a black neckscarf. He also wears a gold-fringed tricolor cummerbund and a square-buckled belt bearing his empty scabbard. The background suggests the smoke of battle, with a few houses in the distance on the left. The land bordering the river is painted in dark tones, with a smoking cannonball still visible.
Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa (1804)
Bonaparte Visits the Plague Victims in Jaffa (French: Bonaparte visitant les pestiférés de Jaffa) is an oil-on-canvas painting commissioned by Napoleon and painted in 1804 by Antoine-Jean Gros, portraying an event during the French invasion of Egypt and Syria. The scene shows Napoleon during an event which is supposed to have occurred in Jaffa on 11 March 1799, depicting him making a visit to ill French soldiers at the Saint Nicholas Monastery.
Napoleon commissioned the painting in an attempt to embroider his mythology and quell reports that he had ordered fifty plague victims in Jaffa be given fatal doses of opium during his retreat from Syria. It also served a propaganda purpose in countering reports of French atrocities during their siege of Jaffa. On 18 September 1804, the painting was exhibited at the Académie des Beaux-Arts' Salon, between Napoleon's proclamation as emperor on 18 May and his coronation at the Notre-Dame de Paris on 2 December. Dominique Vivant Denon, who participated in the invasion of Egypt and Syria before serving as director of the Louvre, advised Gros when he executed the painting, which now forms part of the Louvre's collection of French art.
Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau (1807)
Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau (French: Napoléon sur le champ de bataille d'Eylau) is an oil painting of 1808 by French Romantic painter Antoine-Jean Gros. Completed during the winter of 1807–1808, the work became an icon of the emerging style of French Romanticism. It depicts a moment from the aftermath of the bloody Battle of Eylau (7–8 February 1807) in which Napoleon Bonaparte surveys the battlefield where his Grande Armée secured a costly victory against the Russians. Although Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau retains elements of history painting, it is by far Gros's most realistic work depicting Napoleon and breaks from the subtlety of Neoclassicism. The painting is housed at the Louvre in Paris.
In early February 1807, the Imperial Russian Army, under the command of Levin August von Bennigsen, was in full retreat while being pursued by Napoléon Bonaparte's Grande Armée. The field armies of Russia's ally, the Kingdom of Prussia, had been decisively defeated by the Grande Armée at the double Battle of Jena–Auerstedt on 14 October 1806. This left the Russian army as the only major land force opposing Napoléon in the War of the Fourth Coalition. After some failed attempts to disrupt the French advance, Bennigsen decided to regroup his retreating forces at the Prussian village of Eylau (now Bagrationovsk, Kaliningrad Oblast).
The Battle of the Pyramids (painting) (1810)
The Battle of the Pyramids (French: La Bataille des Pyramides) is an 1810 history painting by the French artist Antoine-Jean Gros. It depicts the Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July 1798 during the French Invasion of Egypt. It is one of numerous paintings by Gros featuring Napoleon.
The Egyptian pyramids are clearly visible in the background. It was commissioned by the French Senate in 1809. It was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1810. The same year he also exhibited his Napoleon Accepting the Surrender of Madrid. Today the painting is in the collection of the Palace of Versailles.
Portrait of Madame Récamier (Gros) (1825)
Portrait of Madame Recamier (French: Portrait de Madame Récamier ) is an oil on canvas painting by French artist Antoine-Jean Gros from about 1825. It is held at the Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters, in Zagreb.
The portrait presents Madame Recamier in her middle age. A great beauty of her time, she had been portrayed in her youth by Jacques-Louis David and François Gérard, at a time when she was leading a cosmopolitan life in Paris while residing at the consulate in the city. She was known for her lavish soirees at the Palace of Rue Mont Blanc, which were attended by contemporary artists, writers, actors and politicians. The portrait was painted later, but still shows her fair features and graceful hands folded under her chest.
Equestrian Portrait of Joachim Murat, King of Naples (1812)
The Equestrian Portrait of Joachim Murat, King of Naples is an oil on canvas painting by the French neoclassical and pre-romantic painter Antoine-Jean Gros, created c. 1808-1812. It is held at the Louvre, in Paris.
Marshal Joachim Murat had several equestrian portraits made of his likeness. Gros knew him well, having met in Milan during the first Italian campaign in 1796. Murat commissioned him the large painting The Battle of Aboukir, which was exhibited at the Salon of French Artists of 1806, before being transferred to the Royal Palace of Naples, where Murat moved in the Summer of 1808, when he was made king of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
Bonaparte, First Consul (Gros) (1802)
Bonaparte, First Consul is an oil painting on canvas by French painter Antoine-Jean Gros, from 1802, which is a full-length portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul. The painting was commissioned by Napoleon himself who offered it to Jean-Jacques-Régis de Cambacérès, the Second Consul. The original is on display at the Museum of the Legion of Honour, in Paris. Napoleon ordered that replicas of this portrait were made by several painters to be displayed in cities across France and Europe.
The painting is a full-length portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte, wearing the red coloured long coat of the consuls of the French First Republic; his trousers are white with gold embroidery, and he wears Hungarian-style boots of light cavalry. His coat is barred by a red and gilt baldric which supports his sword, the hilt of which protrudes. At his side stands a table covered with a dark blue velvet cloth bordered with gold fringes, on which are placed papers and an inkwell. The consul's body is slightly positioned to the right, while his right hand is resting on the papers, and his left holds his gloves. The decor of the room comes down to a floor made up of large marble tiles, and a plain wall from which a false column is seen.
Sappho at Leucate (1801)
Sappho at Leucate, also known as The Death of Sappho, is an oil-on-canvas painting executed by the French artist Antoine-Jean Gros in 1801. It measures 122 x 100 cm and is held in the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire Baron-Gérard, in Bayeux. The painting mixes the structured style that Gros learned from Jacques-Louis David with a more romantic approach full of emotion and drama. When the painting was shown during the Salon of 1801, it drew attention and was later reproduced and adapted in several prints which helped to make this painting more widely known.
The painting depicts Ancient Greek poet Sappho's alleged suicide, in which she leaps from the cliffs of Lefkada out of despair over an unrequited love for the mythological Phaon.
The Battle of Aboukir (1806)
The Battle of Aboukir (French: La Bataille d'Aboukir) is an oil-on-canvas painting by Antoine-Jean Gros. Commissioned by Joachim Murat in 1805, it was completed in 1806. The painting is piece of Napoleonic propaganda known for its attention to historical detail and emotional intensity. It was in the National Palace of Naples in 1808 and was bought for the Musée du Luxembourg in 1833. Since 1835, it has been in the collection of the Palace of Versailles. An original sketch, Murat Defeating the Turkish Army at Aboukir, was completed before the larger painting, and it is now on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The final work served as Gros's submission for the Salon of 1806.
Gros's work depicts the Battle of Aboukir, which took place on July 25, 1799 in Egypt. Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, an effort to weaken British trade routes to India, began in May 1798 when he set sail from Toulon with three hundred ships and over fifty thousand men. After landing in Egypt, Napoleon's troops secured victories in Alexandria and Cairo, establishing a significant French presence in the Nile Delta. In early August of 1798, French ships in the Bay of Aboukir were destroyed by Horatio Nelson and his fleet of British ships, which significantly diminished the access of French troops to Europe. In mid-July 1799, the British sent a fleet of Ottoman forces to Aboukir carrying around fifteen thousand men. Since French defenses had been destroyed the previous summer, the Ottomans were able to gain quick access. They set up camp just outside the bay, unaware that Napoleon was advancing from Cairo with a slightly smaller army. On July 24, Napoleon arrived with his forces and engaged the Ottomans the next day. The French were successful in their initial attacks, as many Turkish soldiers were killed trying to behead the corpses of their enemies. The final charge was made by Murat, who is the focal point of the painting, and his cavalry, who chased and killed almost every soldier in sight as they retreated to their ships.
The Embarkation of the Duchess of Angoulême at Pauillac (1818)
The Embarkation of the Duchess of Angoulême at Pauillac (French: Embarquement de la duchesse d'Angoulême à Pauillac) is an 1818 history painting by the French artist Antoine-Jean Gros. Gros had made his reputation depicting scenes of Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Empire. By contrast, this work was created under the Restoration era and celebrated an iconic royalist moment of recent history.
The painting shows a scene from April 1815. The main figure is Marie-Thérèse, Duchess of Angoulême, the only surviving child of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the niece of the reigning monarch Louis XVIII. She was married to her cousin the Duke of Angoulême, then second-in-line to the throne. When Napoleon escaped from Elba and much of the royal family fled, the Duchess was in Bordeaux where she tried to rally royalist forces against his supporters. Having failed, she decided to leave to spare Bordeaux senseless destruction. She finally embarked from Pauillac and went into exile before Napoleon's final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Also depicted is the Ultra-royalist politician Mathieu de Montmorency.
The Battle of Nazareth (Gros) (1801)
The Battle of Nazareth is an oil on canvas painting by French painter Antoine-Jean Gros, from 1801. It represents the French Army, led by General Andoche Junot, in a battle where he defeated the Ottoman army during the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon. It is held at the Musée d'Arts de Nantes.
In 1800, the year after the victory of French troops over the Ottomans near the village of Nazareth, in Palestine, at April 8, 1799, a jury attributed the realization of a commemorative work of the event to Antoine-Jean Gros. A sketch for the final work was presented at the Salon of 1801. The painting was going to have large dimensions. Gros was going to be execute it, after making the original sketch, when the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte ordered that his size was to be considerably reduced, since the final work was meant to have 8 m in length. It is believed that Napoleon didn't want too much publicity for the hero of the fight, for political reasons, since Junot was overtly republican. On the unused canvas, Gros would paint one of his master works, Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa, completed in 1804.
Napoleon Accepting the Surrender of Madrid (1810)
Napoleon Accepting the Surrender of Madrid (French: Capitulation de Madrid, le 4 décembre 1808) is an 1810 history painting by the French artist Antoine-Jean Gros. It depicts Napoleon, Emperor of France, accepting the capitulation of Madrid, on 4 December 1808, during the Peninsular War. Napoleon is shown with his general staff receiving a delegation from the city.
It depicts the scene in a grand manner style that favours the French viewpoint. It was exhibited at the 1810 Paris Salon, along with the painter's The Battle of the Pyramids, depicting Napoleon during the Egyptian campaign. Today both works are in the collection of the Palace of Versailles.