Gérard initially produced the painting as an official portrait of Napoleon I for his throne room at the Tuileries Palace.

The painting spent time at the Louvre, at the Élysée Palace (from 1849 to 1851 under the presidency of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte), then at the Château de Saint-Cloud before returning to Versailles in 1894.

[1] When the Bourbons were restored to the throne of Naples, the painting was initially moved off public display and into a barn at the Palace of Portici.

[1] In an 1874 inventory, the work was reattributed to Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson[1] and moved to the Palace of Capodimonte, where it still hangs in Room 54 within the Royal Apartments.

In the copy, the figure's pose is modelled on that of Michaelangelo's David, standing with the sceptre of Charles V of France in one hand and a gold laurel wreath on his head.