1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Isabey, Jean Baptiste

ISABEY, JEAN BAPTISTE (1767–1855), French painter, was born at Nancy on the 11th of April 1767. At nineteen, after some lessons from Dumont, miniature painter to Marie Antoinette, he became a pupil of David. Employed at Versailles on portraits of the dukes of Angoulême and Berry, he was given a commission by the queen, which opens the long list of those which he received, up to the date of his death in 1855, from the successive rulers of France. Patronized by Josephine and Napoleon, he arranged the ceremonies of their coronation and prepared drawings for the publication intended as its official commemoration, a work for which he was paid by Louis XVIII., whose portrait (engraved, Debucourt) he executed in 1814. Although Isabey did homage to Napoleon on his return from Elba, he continued to enjoy the favour of the Restoration, and took part in arrangements for the coronation of Charles X. The monarchy of July conferred on him an important post in connexion with the royal collections, and Napoleon III. granted him a pension, and the cross of commander of the Legion of Honour. “Review of Troops by the First Consul” was one of his most important compositions, and “Isabey’s Boat,”—a charming drawing of himself and family—produced at a time when he was much occupied with lithography—had an immense success at the Salon of 1820 (engraved, Landon, Annales, i. 125). His portrait of “Napoleon at Malmaison” is held to be the best ever executed, and even his tiny head of the king of Rome, painted for a breast-pin, is distinguished by a decision and breadth which evidence the hand of a master.

A biography of Isabey was published by M. E. Taigny in 1859, and M. C. Lenormant’s article, written for Michaud’s Biog. univ., is founded on facts furnished by Isabey’s family.