(ed.), The Empress Josephine: Art and Royal Identity

This book is the catalogue for the exhibition, held at the Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, 22 September – 18 December. As well as being beautifully illustrated, this volume contains three articles. The first and principal piece, on Josephine's official and non-official iconography, is by the editor herself and is subdivided into to six chapters, namely I Introduction, II The iconography of the Empress Josephine: Royal prototypes and personal identity, III “La bonne Joséphine”, IV Troubadour style painting and the Medieval Revival, V The coronation ceremony and David's Le Sacre, VI “Imperial Botany”, at Malmaison: the garden of the Empire. The two later articles are much smaller in scope and length. That by the chief curator (and vice-president of the Fondation Napoléon) Bernard Chevalier recounts the history of the Château de Malmaison.  The last is by the 19th-century paintings specialist (and also curator at Malmaison) Alain Pougetoux and deals with Josephine as a patron of the arts and her paintings collection.
 
Carol Solomon Kiefer is a specialist in 19th-century French art and is curator of European art at the Mead Art Museum, Amherst Colleger, Amherst MA, USA.