Antonio Canova. Portrait of Joachim Murat

This marble portrait of Joachim Murat (1767–1815), Marshal of France and King of Naples, was made in Italy in the 1800s. The catalogue names its author as Antonio Canova (1757–1822), the Italian sculptor and master of Neoclassicism who carried out commissions for Napoleon and portrayed members of his family.

Murat was a close friend and comrade-in-arms of Napoleon. In 1800 he married Napoleon’s sister Caroline Bonaparte, in 1804 he became a Marshal of France, and in 1808 King of Naples. During the 1812 campaign against Russia, Murat commanded the cavalry reserve of the Grande Armée and personally led cavalry charges, including at Borodino. In 1815, after an attempt to regain the Neapolitan throne, he was executed by firing squad at Pizzo.

The sculptor showed Murat with a slight smile, his head turned to the left; thick hair falls to his shoulders, and the neckline of his garment recalls ancient armour. The portrait belongs to a group of marble busts of Napoleon’s family which, according to the State Historical Museum, the collector Pyotr Shchukin acquired in 1909; they were later transferred to the museum and in 1912 were shown at the exhibition marking the centenary of the Patriotic War of 1812.