Portrait of Houdon

Monsiau was a distinguished painter of religious, historical and modern themes as well as a prolific illustrator of books. He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1789 and exhibited his paintings and drawings at the biennial Paris Salons from 1787 until 1833. The subject of Monsiau's portait drawing is Jean-Antoine Houdon (1754-1828), himself a renowned portraitist, who executed sculptures of King Louis XV, Empress Catherine II of Russian, Napoleon, Voltaire, and Benjamin Franklin. Monsiau put this likeness of Houdon to use in his celebrated group portrait The Comitia at Lyon (1808, Versailles), which depict an Italian delegation voting to elect Napoleon as president of the Cisalpine Republic in Italy in 1802. As Monsiau was commissioned to execute the painting years after the assembly, he inserted portraits of artists and writers in his circle in France. The painting was exhibited at the 1808 Salon.