When Napoleon Bonaparte proclaimed himself emperor, he resumed the use from the royal rule to hand out gifts in the form of gold boxes with a portrait of the ruler. Isabey, favourite artist of empress Joséphine, was asked to deliver a large number of boxes. The model occasionally wanted to approve the result before the miniature was mounted, and Isabey’s works were then sometimes criticized. In 1807 he delivered 25 boxes, hence the exact dating.