Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-Stricken in Jaffa

1804

Oil on canvas, 523 × 715 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris

A mosque courtyard serves as a military hospital for the Army of the Orient, and its commander walks among the dying. The picture links the grand style of David's school to the new regime of Napoleon.

Shown at the Salon of 1804. Bonaparte himself prompted the commission, which went through the interior ministry.
Look at his bare hand touching a sore on a patient's chest while an officer covers his nose.
Painted in a studio in the Jeu de Paume at Versailles and signed on a step at the left.
A living commander appears as a near-sacred healer, calm and upright among the dying, while a blind soldier at the right gropes his way toward him.
Paid for by the state in 1805, it sat in storage by 1821, reportedly deteriorating, then hung at the Luxembourg from 1830.

History painting: Large pictures of heroic, religious or historical scenes, ranked highest by the academies.
Salon: The official, juried art exhibition in Paris, where an artist's reputation was made or lost.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (PD-Art)