Joachim Murat (1767-1815) was a comrade-in-arms of Napoleon Bonaparte; from 1805 he was Marshal of France and from 1808 King of Naples. The Hermitage canvas is a sketch for Girodet's painting Napoleon Receiving the Keys of the City of Vienna, 13 November 1805 (1808; Versailles, Château). The portrait of Murat is marked by a fine depiction of the physical characteristics of the face (the low brows, straight nose and projecting chin) and at the same time by great emotional expressiveness. Murat's outwardly static profile is filled with inner tension, the clear, direct gaze giving away the strength of will, decisiveness, bravery and temperament of one of the main figures in the Napoleonic era.
Credit: Entered the Hermitage in 1922; handed over from the collection of Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich