Napoleon in Imperial Costume

In 1805 Napoleon had been emperor for barely a year, and Jacques-Louis David was his official painter. The plan was a grand full-length of Napoleon in his coronation robes, meant for a hall in Genoa. It went badly. Napoleon was unhappy with the result and the large picture was left unfinished. What survives here in Lille is the small oil study for it, the idea worked out at modest scale before the full canvas. David had voted for the king's death during the Revolution a dozen years earlier, and now he was dressing that same Revolution's heir in ermine and gold as a crowned sovereign. The regalia carries the message: the hand of justice, the heavy mantle, and the laurel wreath of a Roman emperor rather than a French king's crown.