Empress Joséphine of France

Empress Joséphine, Napoleon's first wife, was one of the most portrayed women in Europe during the Consulate and Empire periods. The year listed in the metadata — 1900 — is clearly a data error, as Joséphine died in 1814 and Regnault was active in the Napoleonic court circle. The portrait, held at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, likely dates from the early 1800s, when official portrait commissions of the empress were distributed across France and its client states. Regnault's access to the imperial court gave him opportunity to paint or copy portraits of Joséphine, and the Nationalmuseum version reached Sweden through the complex network of gift-giving and diplomatic exchange that characterised the Napoleonic system of dynastic alliance. Joséphine was typically portrayed in Empire-style dress — white or light-coloured muslin, simple classical lines — which aligned her image with the Neoclassical aesthetic of the regime.

An official portrait of the empress required both convincing likeness and flattering idealization — a balance Regnault's smooth academic technique was well suited to achieve. Imperial regalia, dress, and setting are carefully depicted as attributes of status while the face is rendered with sufficient individual observation to be recognisable.