Jewish delegates seated in a large assembly.

INV. 077 · Artwork

The French Grand Sanhedrin

◔ Under review

This is a modern artwork. It shows how a later age imagined the past, not how the past was.

The work depicts the institution Napoleon convened to ratify the notables' answers.

Type: Artwork
Nature: Modern artworkA later artistic interpretation; not a document of the period.
Date of the object: 1868Édouard Moyse's painting, made after the 1807 assembly.
Image: Édouard Moyse
Licence: Public domain
Origin: Wikimedia Commons: Edouard Moyse Le grand Sanhedrin 1868.jpg ↗
Retrieved: Commons API, 2026-10-15

Sourced historical context

The Grand Sanhedrin ratified the answers and stirred messianic expectations. The Sanhedrin recast Judaism as a private faith compatible with French law.

Events

1806–1808 Napoleon and the Jews