Public data from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Learn more
Portrait of Napoléone Elisa Baciocchi, Niece of Napoleon I
Also known as: Portrait of Napoloeone Elisa Baciocchi
About the Artwork
To extend power across the continent, Napoleon arranged for his sisters to marry into the courts of Europe. The sitter is his niece, daughter of the Grand-Duke of Tuscany (the bee on her cup is a Napoleonic emblem). While the girl’s nakedness might startle us today, in the early 1800s depicting children nude emphasized their purity and innocence. The work takes its cues from ancient sculpture, and while the pet dog adds a note of tenderness, it also refers to Diana, goddess of the moon and hunt.
Inscriptions
inscribed in Greek on dog's collar: ARTEMIS (letters originally filled with red pigment)
Provenance
Comtesse Lecoat de Kerveguen (Paris, France) Wildenstein & Co., Inc. (New York, New York), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1979.
Exhibition history
Year in Review: 1979. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 13-March 9, 1980). Rococo, Revolution, Restoration. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 11-September 24, 1989).
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Lorenzo Bartolini (Italian, 1777–1850)
- Date
- 1810–12
- Medium
- marble
- Dimensions
- Overall: 113 x 39.1 cm (44 1/2 x 15 3/8 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- The Thomas L. Fawick Memorial Collection
- Accession no.
- 1979.37
More by Lorenzo Bartolini in museum collections
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00010660
Powered by Art Trackers