The Coronation of Charles X

François Gérard's Coronation of Charles X of 1827 commemorates the elaborate ceremony at Reims Cathedral in May 1825 that Charles X had organized as a full medieval coronation with anointing — a deliberate assertion of divine-right monarchy that seemed anachronistic even to many royalists. Gérard's vast ceremonial canvas records the assembled court, peerage, and clergy in the Gothic interior, the spectacle of medieval ritual revived by a Restoration monarchy that misread the political temperature of early nineteenth-century France. Charles was overthrown by revolution five years after his coronation.

The monumental canvas captures the Gothic cathedral interior with careful architectural rendering and the massed figures of the assembled court. Gérard's polished technique handles the complex lighting of candles and stained glass with theatrical effect.