The Coronation of Napoleon

Jacques-Louis David painted The Coronation of Napoleon in 1805-1807, one of the largest and most ambitious paintings in Western art. The monumental canvas depicts the moment Napoleon crowns Empress Joséphine in Notre-Dame Cathedral on December 2, 1804. David, who attended the ceremony, worked from sketches and sittings to create a painting containing over 150 identifiable portraits. Napoleon famously insisted on changes to enhance the imperial image.

David's extraordinary compositional skill organizes the vast scene with clarity and grandeur. The meticulous rendering of individual portraits, ceremonial robes, and the cathedral interior demonstrates a mastery of large-scale figure painting that few artists in history have matched.