In 1853, the newly-appointed Emperor of the French Napoleon III commissioned Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin, a pupil of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and specialized painter of religious figures, to work on a standing portrait of him.

[2] The Emperor, displeased by Flandrin's depiction of him, cancelled the commission, and preferred Franz Xaver Winterhalter's painting of him in his coronation robes, with its more glorified and distinguished idealization.

[3] According to Karine Huguenaud, Flandrin's portrait is a "penetrating psychological study of the emperor", extraordinarily capturing Napoleon III's "distant and inscrutable look".

[3] "This", exulted writer Théophile Gautier, "is without doubt the first 'real' portrait which we have of Your Majesty", referring to the realistic approach in Flandrin's work.

[3] The critics were positive: the sincerity of the subject exercised both intimacy and fascination, winning favor over Winhalter's coronation portrait.