The Coronation of Napoleon
painting by Jacques-Louis David, completed in 1807
The Coronation of Napoleon (French: Le Sacre de Napoléon) is a painting completed in 1807 by Jacques-Louis David, the official painter of Napoleon, depicting the coronation of Napoleon at Notre-Dame de Paris. The oil painting has imposing dimensions – it is almost 10 metres (33 ft) wide by a little over 6 metres (20 ft) tall. The work is on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France.
History of the work
The work was commissioned by Napoleon orally in September 1804, and Jacques-Louis David started work on it on 21 December 1805 in the former chapel of the College of Cluny, near the Sorbonne, which served as a workshop. Assisted by his student Georges Rouget, he put the finishing touches in January 1808.
From 7 February to 22 March 1808, the work was exhibited at the Salon of 1808 at the Louvre, and it was presented to the Salon decennial prize competition at the Salon of 1810. The painting remained the property of David until 1819 when it was transferred to the Royal Museums, where it was stored in the reserves until 1837. It was subsequently installed in the Chamber Sacre of the museum of the historical Palace of Versailles on the orders of King Louis-Philippe. In 1889, the painting was transferred to the Louvre from Versailles.
David was commissioned by American entrepreneurs to paint a full size replica in 1808, immediately after the release of the original.
“The Coronation of Napoleon” enters the record as painting by Jacques-Louis David, completed in 1807. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Coronation, Napoleon and painting can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“The Coronation of Napoleon” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Coronation, Napoleon and painting provides the most credible route into that argument.
Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1231009. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1807, 1804, 1805 and 1808.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Coronation of Napoleon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.