[1] Following the defeat of Napoleon in 1814 he had abdicated in favour of his young son, but had instead been replaced by the restored Bourbon monarchy of Louis XVIII.

[2] To Bonapartists he was the legitimate heir to his father, then imprisoned in British custody on the island of Saint Helena.

Lawrence, Britain's leading portraitist, had recently attended the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle to paint European leaders as part of a large-scale commission from the Prince Regent.

The eight-year old Napoleon sat for Lawrence, first for a pencil-portrait in profile and then for this full-face painting intended for an oval shaped portrait.

[4] The resemblance of the boy in the painting to his father was moving to General Bertrand and his wife Fanny who had accompanied Napoleon I into exile.