What's On

The University of Southampton will be holding its Seventh Wellington Congress 12-14 April 2019. Keynote speakers will include Professor Andrew Lambert, Professor Charles Esdaile, Dr Alicia Laspra and Dr Richard Gaunt. Proposals are invited for papers on all aspects of the career of the first Duke of Wellington, as well as the wider context in […]

Programme : Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène [Napoleon on St Helena] (Thierry Lentz). Le Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène : témoignage et manifeste politique [The Mémorial of St Helena: testimony and political manifesto] (Chantal Prévot) Le grand-maréchal Bertrand et ses Mémoires [Grand Marshal Bertrand and his Memoirs] (François Houdecek) Dans l’intimité de Napoléon : les témoignages d’Ali et de Marchand [Napoleon in […]

On this occasion the Fondation Napoléon will be presenting at the Hôtel du département, Versailles a small  exhibition “Napoléon, homme de plume et grand lecteur” [“Napoleon, man of the pen and avid reader”] with items from its collection: autograph letters and books from Napoleon’s library – and will also spotlight the 15-volume edition of the General […]

The “Imperial Boxes” show presents nearly eighty objects, both small and large, from the Fondation Napoléon’s collection, most of them probably everyday items (boxes for various purposes, inkwells, crockery, portraits, and travel necéssaires).These objects highlight another part of Napoleonic history: not the battles and conquests, but the sumptuous life of the imperial court and the […]

The Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris proposes the first major exhibition (at its François Mitterrand site) dedicated to the three members of the Nadar family. Félix Nadar (1820-1910), his brother Adrien Tournachon (1825-1903) and his son Paul Nadar (1856-1939) were all photographers, painters, artists and inventors… Some 300 pieces reveal the specificities of each of […]

This autumn, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (link in English) in Paris [France’s National Art school, ENSBA] is exhibiting thirty-four watercolours (from its collection of more than 40,000 architectural drawings) made by aspiring architects during the Second Empire (link in French). This exhibition “Bâtir sous le Second Empire” also reflects the architectural tastes as well as the […]

Using a libretto based on Tolstoy’s great novel set during the Napoleonic Wars when 500,000 French troops invaded Russia, Prokofiev began composing his opera War and Peace in 1942, a year after the Nazi invasion of Russia. This new production by Welsh National Opera performed in English translation, combines the two eras. The next performances […]

Amongst these works from the collection of Paola Sancassani (mainly Italian, but there are also some in the French and English school), temporarily on loan, are miniatures related to the figure of Napoleon Bonaparte and his enterprises. On show are miniatures of Napoleon, his family and generals, as well as anonymous contemporaries: of note are […]

On 19 October 1800, two ships Le Naturaliste and Le Géographe left Le Havre (in France) for Australia. Initiated by Captain Nicolas Baudin, and supported by Consul Napoleon Bonaparte, the assignment was the geographical reconnaissance of the Australian coasts, the inventory of species, and a description of the populations. After the three official painters abandoned the […]