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| John Raphael SMITH after Andrea APPIANI
Buonaparte first Consul of France, Mezzotint, 1800, finished state on heavy wove paper without watermark,
printed in color. This mezzotint by Raphael Smith is contemporaneous with Bonaparte's elevation as First Consul of the French Republic on November 11, 1799. The antecedent painting by Andrea Appiani, first owned by Lord Wycombe, an ardent Napoleonist, then the Fifth Earl of Rosebery, and now at Dalmeny, near Edinburgh, Scotland (see Museo Napoleonico, 1997 catalogue, infra), was executed June, 1796, the first posing by Bonaparte for a formal portrait, some months prior to Gros's rendition (now at Versailles) of him at Arcole. Here he is shown presenting his victory at the battle of Lodi on May 10, 1796. The French troops of the Army of Italy storm the bridge across the Adda River in pursuit of Beaulieu's Austrian army. On a shield bordered with the letters "Ao 4me de la Republique Francaise Armee d'Ita...," the angel inscribes the words "Montenotte Milesimo Dego Mondovi Ceva Passage du Po a Plaisance Passage del' Adda a Lod." These are all sites of Bonaparte's victories in the campaign in Piedmont and Lombardy in the spring of 1796. At Lodi his troops awarded Bonaparte the nickname "Le Petit Corporal" for bravery in battle, and he became convinced that he was a man of destiny: "From that moment," he said, "I foresaw what I might be. Already I felt the earth flee from beneath me, as if I were being carried into the sky." In this example the strength of the visible printing and the very crisp engraving of the filled letters in the inscription testify to an early impression. The deep and fresh "Venetian" quality to the coloring seems to reflect single plate coloring which, as practiced at the time, is qualitatively different from multiple plate coloring or hand coloring. The process entails inking all the colors separately onto the single plate and then wiping (or even blending) them separately for a single proof impression. David Alexander (Honorary Keeper of Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum) relates, see Postle, infra, p. 67, that Smith advertised this print at the time of publication as available in plain copies at one guinea, in color at two guineas and "coloured by oil" for three guineas.* The matte, transparent way in which color sits in the burr in the present example would indicate single-plate color printing, and the absence of staining-though to the verso speaks against the inclusion of any fatty oils. Three other impressions of this print are known (see D'Oench, infra, no. 356 at p. 236), none colored. Refernces: D'Oench, Ellen G., Copper into Gold: prints by John Raphael Smith, New Haven: Yale University Press for the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art, 1999, p. 236, no. 356, and pp. 170-2. Doerner, Max, The materials of the artist and their use in painting, trans. Eugen Neuhaus, New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1934, pp. 226-8. Frankau, Julia, An eighteenth century artist & engraver, John Raphael Smith. His life and works, London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1902, no. 52. [Museo Napoleonico, Roma], 1796-1797: Da Montenotte a Campoformio: la rapida marcie di Napoleone Bonaparte, Rome: L'Erma di Bretschneider, 1997, pp. 62-4. Postle, Martin, Angels & Urchins: the fancy picture in 18th-century British art, Nottingham: Djangogly Art Gallery with Lund Humphries, 1988, cf. no. 22, p. 67 and pl. 10, p. 30. Smith, John Chaloner, British Mezzotinto Portraits, London:
H. Southeran, 1884, v. 3, p. 1253, no. 28. |