Coronation of Emperor Napoleon I and Coronation of the Empress Josephine

David's Coronation of Napoleon of 1807-08, exhibited at the 1808 Salon, depicts the December 2, 1804 ceremony in Notre Dame when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor, dismissing the Pope to a witness role. The vast canvas contains over two hundred individually recognizable portraits of the assembled court, clergy, and diplomatic corps. David chose the moment when Napoleon crowns Josephine rather than himself, creating a more gracious image while capturing the essence of the ceremony's self-made dynasty. The painting required years of preparation and constitutes one of the great documentary paintings in European history.

The vast composition marshals over a hundred figures into a coherent ceremonial scene. David's preparatory portrait studies for individual participants — each painted from life — give the crowd scene an unprecedented level of individual characterization within the monumental format.