[1][2] It depicts the Corsican noblewoman Letizia Bonaparte, best known as the mother of the emperor of France Napoleon.

[3] Several of her other children, part of the Bonaparte dynasty, acquired royal status during the Napoleonic era.

Gérard, a former student of Jacques-Louis David, painted many members of the extended Bonaparte family.

She is portrayed at full-length seated in a well-furnished apartment overlooking the Tuileries Palace in Paris, with a bust of Napoleon beside her.

The painting was taken to Italy by the sitter's grandaughter Mathilde Bonaparte when she married, Today it is in the collection of the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh, having been acquired in 1988 with the support of the Art Fund.