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Decoration Executed for the Birthday of His Majesty the King of Westphalia
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
A scenic designer for the Paris Opera, Cicéri created this decoration for a performance celebrating the birthday of Emperor Napoleon’s brother, Jérôme Bonaparte (1784–1860), King of Westphalia, a vassal state of territories taken from Prussia and its allies. Antoine-André Bruguière, named in the inscription as the commissioner of the decoration, was Westphalia’s secretary of the ministry of war and the superintendent of theaters in Kassel, the state’s capital city. The title of the special performance is unknown, but the triumphal arch, Corinthian columns topped with vases, and classical statues all suggest a Roman theme.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineDecoration Executed for the Birthday of His Majesty the King of Westphalia, 1811. Pierre-Luc-Charles Cicéri (French, 1782–1868). Pen and black ink and watercolor with graphite; heightened with white gouache on off-white wove paper; sheet: 32 x 42.3 cm (12 5/8 x 16 5/8 in.); secondary support: 44 x 53.2 cm (17 5/16 x 20 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Muriel Butkin, 2008.341
