Tony Scherman’s Chasing Napoleon presents a remarkable tour de force: a cycle of monumentally scaled portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte, each of which depicts Napoleon at a psychologically charged, life-determining juncture. Through exhaustive documentary research, – ranging from celebrated commemorative paintings, official and unofficial portraits, to prints, illustrations, cameos and coins – Scherman has arrived at a historically derived, composite image. His method for artistic conception could perhaps be called ‘forensic portraiture’. Confronting the challenge of producing an accurate likeness of a historical figure whose reign preceded the age of photography, these paintings metaphorically chronicle the life of Napoleon using only the image of his face.
1999
Cameron & Hollis
132 Pages. 11.75 x 12.5 in
Hardcover
