Napoleon 1st in legislator

Antoine-Denis Chaudet, painter and sculptor, is best known for his work as a neo-classical statuary. This foot representation of Napoleon I, dressed in antiques, the crowned head of laurels, the roller of the Civil Code to his right hand, is one of the replicas of the statue of Chaudet. His original was executed for the Legislative Corps meeting room at the Bourbon Palace in tribute to the inspiration of the Civil Code. It was inaugurated on 14 January 1805 in the presence of the marshes Murat and Masséna.
There is no specific indication to date of the origin of the statue of the Masséna Museum. Jean-Baptiste Fortuné de Fournier, in a watercolour of 1841, shows it in the villa of the collector Anatole Demidoff. The photographs of 1910 attest that the statue of Chaudet is already in the villa Masséna. It remains there since the sale of the building and furniture in the city of Nice in 1919.