The Prince Imperial with his Dog Nero

Manufactory Sèvres Manufactory French
 Modeler Henri Robert
Based on a composition of 1856 by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux French

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 556

After an unsuccessful effort in 1864 to win a commission for a portrait of Empress Eugénie, Carpeaux proposed to the imperial couple a portrait of their son, Eugène-Louis-Jean-Joseph Napoléon, the Prince Impérial (1856–1879). By August 1865, a lifesize portrait of the nine-year-old prince was complete and the plaster was soon shown publicly at the Salon of 1866. The standing portrait was also executed in marble and cast in silver-patinated bronze, exhibited at the Salons of 1867 and 1868 respectively. Carpeaux chose to portray the prince as a bourgeois lad, shown with the emperor's dog Néro, a gift from the Russian ambassador. In 1869, the Sèvres Manufactory began to produce biscuit porcelain reductions that faithfully reflect the surfaces of marble.

The Prince Imperial with his Dog Nero, Sèvres Manufactory (French, 1740–present), Hard-paste biscuit porcelain, French, Sèvres

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