Portrait of the Marshal Masséna, Prince of Essling, 1814

In 1810, the city of Nice entrusted the painter Louis Hersent to carry out the portrait of the illustrious commander-in-chief of the battles of the Republic and the Empire. Named a marechal in 1804, Masséna is represented with the ceremony, composed of a dress of blue silk velvets with sloping pans, a glut coat, cut to the knee, on the back of white silk with large gold embroidered seams such as the habit, of a panties, of white stock, of a tie of lace and a tie of lace. The floating white feather hat raised in front and the blue silk velvet stick embroidered with gold bees are placed on the table covered with a green velvet cloth. Masséna carries on his habit the great cord and the large eagle plaque of the Legion of Honour. At the bottom of the room where the model stands, the hand placed on maps of Europe, a window is opened on a landscape of Nice with the old town, the Paillon, the bay of Nice and the cap d’Antibes.
Presented until 1929 in the former municipal council hall, this painting was transferred to the Masséna Museum.