Wedding of Prince Jérôme Bonaparte and Princess Frédérique-Catherine of Wurtemberg, August 22, 1807

Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned Jean-Baptiste Regnault in 1807 to paint the wedding of his brother Jérôme and Princess Catherine of Württemberg as the model for a tapestry destined for the Salon de Mars. Regnault completed the oil-on-canvas history painting, which was exhibited at the Salon of 1810 in the Louvre; some catalogue records give a completion date of 1850, but this is untenable, as Regnault died in 1829. The painting entered the national collections and is now housed in the Museum of the History of France at the Palace of Versailles, where it bears inventory numbers MV 1558, INV 7392, and MR 2362.

Napoleon commissioned Regnault to paint the wedding in 1807 as the model for a tapestry intended for the Salon de Mars. The completed work was shown at the Salon of 1810 in the Louvre and now resides in the Museum of the History of France at the Palace of Versailles, where it forms part of the institution's Napoleonic collections. Regnault, trained in the Neoclassical style and a contemporary of Jacques-Louis David and François-André Vincent, rendered the scene with numerous portraits of Bonaparte family members, underscoring its dynastic purpose.

As a history painting exhibited at the official Salon and held in a national museum, the work exemplifies the official art of the Napoleonic era.

Jean-Baptiste Regnault's oil painting captures the civil marriage ceremony of Prince Jérôme Bonaparte and Princess Frédérique-Catherine of Wurtemberg. Executed in 1807, this historical work commemorates a significant dynastic alliance within the Napoleonic era. The scene unfolds at the Tuileries Palace in Paris, depicting a pivotal moment in the political landscape of early 19th-century Europe.

Following their wedding, Jérôme and Catharina assumed the throne of the newly formed Kingdom of Westphalia, a French satellite state, governing from 1807 until 1813. Their rule concluded with the dissolution of the kingdom after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig. Subsequently, Princess Catharina chose to accompany her husband into permanent exile, remaining with him despite the downfall of the Napoleonic empire.