What's On

28 February – 19 May 2019, Admission free, Location: Room 1 Curator Francesca Whitlum-Cooper Working in a politically turbulent Paris, Louis-Léopold Boilly witnessed the French Revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon, and the Restoration of the French Monarchy. From controversially seductive interior scenes, which saw him get into trouble with the authorities, to ‘first-of-their-kind’ everyday street […]

From 1815 to 1821, Napoleon was exiled to St Helena, an island in the South Atlantic supplied by the British colony of Cape Town. Throughout his stay on the island, Napoleon had a wine delivered to him: known as the “Vin de Constance”, produced in Constantia, Cape Town. The exhibits, which either belonged to Napoleon […]

Over the course of its history, the Jewellers Maison Chaumet has attracted intellectuals and inspired the greatest writers. The  exhibition “Brillantes Écritures” [brilliant writings] brings together literary works, historic jewels, archive documents, drawings and photographs. The pieces on display tell the story of the links between the Maison and its famous writer clients and literary […]

The exhibition is the first to gather such a large number of printed portraits of the sovereign: the exhibtion also tries to answer the question why there were so many produced at the time: the need to present the new French Empress, and then later the need to forget the uncomfortable role of “wife of […]

The ingenuity of the cabinetmakers at the end of the Ancien Régime, combined with the German taste for mechanical furniture, gave rise to skilful creations, sometimes very mysterious. This taste persisted into the 19th century, as brilliantly demonstrated by the chest of drawers and the secretary of cabinetmaker Simon-Nicolas Mansion (1773-1854), presented to Napoleon I […]

This is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on Roger Fenton’s pioneering photographs of the Crimean War, taken in 1855. Fenton was already an accomplished and respected photographer when he was sent by the publishers Agnew’s to photograph a war that pitched Britain, France and Turkey as allies against Russia.  Arriving several months after the […]

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 […]