Objects

As early as the end of the 18th century, Jean-Baptiste Isabey was celebrated as one of the greatest French miniaturists ever. At that time, the miniature genre was at its apogee in terms of popularity, a popularity supported by the Revolutionary wars and later the campaigns of Napoleon, since each soldier wanted to take with […]

Eugène Guillaume, author of this life-size statue, was an official artist during the Second Empire whose claim to fame was his mastery of Neoclassicism. He was trained by Jean-Jacques dit James Pradier (1790-1852, Grand Prix de Rome in 1813) who himself had found fame with his sculptures inspired by antiquity – including notably the “Victories” […]

On 2 December, 1804, the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris was the theatre for the coronation and consecration of Napoleon I (otherwise known as the “Sacre”). And in correspondence to the splendour and grandeur of the ceremony, particular attention was paid to the imperial insignia. In addition to the “honneurs de Charlemagne”, in other words […]

On 5 December, 1360, king Jean II le Bon signed an ordonnance creating a new gold currency, the Franc, equal in value to one Livre Tournois. At the time, the term “franc” meant ‘autonomous’. The first Franc in the monetary history of France in fact evoked the recent return to liberty of the French king […]