Article: How England first saw Bonaparte: a painting by Francesco Cossia commissioned by Maria Cosway in 1797 was the first true portrait of Napoleon to be seen in England. It was acquired by Sir John Soane, who, as Xavier F. Salomon and Christopher Woodward explain, juxtaposed it with a miniature by Isabey in a graphic comparison of the youthful hero with the tyrannical dicatator.

'On the 15 May 1796, General Bonaparte made his entry into Milan at the head of the young army that had just marched over the bridge at Lodi, and showed the world that after so many centuries, there was now a successor to Caesar and Alexander.' So Stendhal began The Charterhouse of Parma. A few weeks after the conquest of Milan, Napoleon was painted by Andrea Appiani (1754-1817). It was the first time he sat for a formal portrait.

Several years ago a fascinating exhibition at the Museo Napoleonico in Rome showed how the campaign in Italy created a personal iconography for Napoleon. (1) One picture was absent from the sequence of portraits exhibited, however: a ...

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