Family Portrait in front of a Harbour

When Sablet the Younger painted this portrait, he had a government stipend and an apartment in the Louvre. He earned the approval of the Bonaparte family and executed a number of paintings for them. This painting provides an interesting contrast between the mode of dress of the ancien régime and the new fashions adopted after the Revolution. The men’s clothes belong to the former period—the wigs, knee breeches and silver-buckled shoes were already oldfashioned by 1800. The women’s dresses demonstrate the antique style that prevailed under the Directory and during the Empire: the high-waisted gowns, worn without corsets, and the filmy materials in pale colours.