Paintings : 20
-
PaintingInauguration Ceremony of the Suez Canal at Port-Said, 17 November, 1869
Edouard Riou (1833-1900) was a Pre-Impressionist painter, a renowned illustrator of books by Jules Verne and Alexandre Dumas, and a contributor to the weekly newspaper Le tour du monde, and in 1870, at the request of Ferdinand de Lesseps, he created a souvenir album of the Empress’ voyage undertaken for the inauguration of the Suez […]
-
PaintingThe Field of Waterloo
Napoleon’s final battle has become the stuff of legend. For the British, the memory begins on the evening of 15 June 1815, as Lady Richmond gave a ball in Brussels, sobered by the news of the arrival of the French. The proximity to the battlefield amplified the effect on the civilians. The rapid chain of […]
-
PaintingThe French Army crossing the Berezina on 28 November 1812
On 19 October, 1812, the Grande Armée left Moscow and began its miserable retreat. A month later, on 25 November, 1812, it arrived at the Berezina river, which barred its progression to the west. Under attack from the Russians, the army escaped destruction thanks to the sacrifice of the pontonniers of general Eblé who constructed […]
-
PaintingSketch of ‘2 May 1808 in Madrid’, also called ‘The Assault against the Mamlukes at the Puerta del Sol’
On 2 May, 1808, the population of Madrid (which had been in a state of unrest for a couple of weeks due to the presence of the French troops) staged an uprising. The combats raged in the streets; city governor Joachim Murat decreed martial law. In the evening, a military tribunal met with instructions to […]
-
PaintingBonaparte crossing the Great St Bernard Pass
The relationship between Napoleon Bonaparte and Jacques-Louis David was tumultuous, but we tend to think rather of the images the latter made of the former, which helped the cause of the general, First Consul then Emperor during fifteen years of power. David started this portrait following the failure of a first monumental portrait which was […]
-
PaintingNapoleon III Hands Baron Haussmann the Decree Annexing the Parisian Suburban Communes
Adolphe Yvon was principally a painter of battle scenes and a student of Paul Delaroche. His works include Marshal Ney Supporting the Rear Guard during the Retreat from Moscow (1856, Manchester Art Gallery), the Taking of the Malakoff tower by General Mac-Mahon, 8 September, 1855 (salon of 1857, Château de Versailles et de Trianon), The […]
-
PaintingThe Clichy Gate, The Defence of Paris, 30 March 1814
Horace Vernet was a Bonapartist and profoundly patriotic, and he sought to evoke the Napoleonic era in his numerous works, which often have Napoleon as their central figure. Here he not only celebrates the will and the courage of marshal Moncey (1754-1842), a famous military personage, but also anonymous Parisians who rallied to the defence […]
-
PaintingSentinella – Garibaldean volunteer during the siege of Rome
The night of 2 June 1849, 30,000 soldiers under the command of General Oudinot attacked the fortifications on the Janiculum hill. It would be another month before the French expeditionary corps – greater in number, arms and equipment – would succeed in entering Rome. The city had been declared a Republic in February after the […]
-
PaintingThe religious marriage of Napoleon I and Marie-Louise in the Salon Carré at the Louvre, on 2 April, 1810
Napoleon I and Marie-Louise of Austria were married before God in a ‘chapel’ created by architects Percier and Fontaine out of the Salon Carré at the Louvre on 2 April, 1810. The wedding procession and cortege had to walk all the way from the Tuileries palace, down a great part of the Grande Galerie in […]
-
PaintingThe emperor visiting the flood victims in Tarascon (June 1856)
Fro, the ancients on, history painting was considered art’s noblest genre. And this opinion held good through the Renaissance right up to the end of the Second Empire. It had become the type of art that we would nowadays call ‘documentary’, though the scenes were often carefully staged. The public demanded modern subjects, often from current affairs, almost newspaper snapshots. […]