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THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN n° 721, 4-10 JULY, 2014
EDITORIAL > 1814-2014: a model bicentenary
Congratulations to the «1814» association, led by Guy Carrieu, and the 110 (yes, you read that correctly), 110 events which it encouraged, supported and indeed organised itself, in commemoration of the French Campaign. Conferences, re-enactments, acts of memory, exhibitions, laying of commemorative plaques, festivities of all sorts, newspaper articles, more extended publications; they pulled out all the stops. A model bicentenary. Bravo, bravo, bravo!
But given it's world cup season, I also want to hand out some yellow cards. And I won't hide it from you, I'm also reaching for the red…
The ‘bookings' go – no surprises there – to the representatives of the French state in the départements and arrondissements concerned. Few were the members of the Prefectoral corps who turned out; and even those who did came as private individuals, almost incognito… But then again, we're used to this. The past fifteen years have seen nothing different.
As for the more serious infringement... The Russian government financed three grand monuments in memory of combatants who fell for Russia during the campaign. So, for the inauguration, they sent the Russian Federation Minister of Culture to the Champagne region of France, and he was accompanied by the Russian ambassador resident in Paris and other officials. Neither Madame the French Minister for Culture nor any other member of the government thought it worth coming to welcome and accompany them. The Prefect represented his ministerial colleagues (he was forced to show his face this time!!). I couldn't help taking a brief look at Madame Filipetti's official diary for that day: she had no official meetings! But that is how things go these days: no respect for international protocol or even simple courtesy.
This would have deserved a red card had it not been for one thing. The turnout. In this respect, the organisers (and the officials who in the end took the plunge) got the only really worthwhile reward there is. Namely, that people came to the events; and in droves. Indeed, there were more than ten thousand spectators at some re-enactments; the conferences and talks were held before full houses; and you had to elbow your way into the exhibitions.
So, see you for the remaining events in Champagne this summer (details on the site), and don't forget to come to Troyes in the autumn for the grand finale!
Thierry Lentz, Director
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PAINTING OF THE MONTH > OFFICER OF THE CHASSEURS A CHEVAL OF THE GARDE IMPERIALE CHARGING, BY THEODORE GERICAULT
This masterful and monumental equestrian portrait was the first painting Théodore Géricault ever exhibited. Completed in just a few weeks and hung at the Salon of 1812, this canvas is a shining example of the swagger of the Napoleonic epic. In the thick of battle on a violently rearing horse, officer of the Garde Impériale Alexandre Dieudonné turns in his saddle to give the signal to charge. More than just a portrait of an individual, this large format painting elevates its subject to the status of modern hero.
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THE SECOND EMPIRE IN PHOTOGRAPHS
These extraordinary photographs of Napoleon's veterans (external link) got a great response on our Facebook page a few weeks ago, and even since we've been thinking about the photographic record of the Second Empire. There's a huge wealth of material out there, and we've brought lots of it together here for your perusal. There's our special mini-site dedicated to a photographic visit to the Chalons Camp under the Second Empire, and our interactive site about the building of the Suez Canal, with a commentated timeline and great quantity of visual material. Elsewhere on the web, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France has a fantastic site left over from its exhibition, “Photographers for the Emperor” (external link), which looks at Napoleon III's reign through the lens of its spectacular developments in photography. And in this centenary year, with so much attention focussed (and rightly so) on the commemorations around World War One, it is worth remembering that the conflict in Crimea produced the first photographic accounts of battle (external link).
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NAPOLEONIC SUMMER READING LIST
Have you caught up with all this year's Napoleonic publications yet? We've put together a selection of some of the best Napoleonic books we've come across - from biographies of battles to biographies of Bonapartes, sweeping historical novels to the secrets of the Emperor himself, there's something for everyone to enjoy this summer...
A NAPOLEONIC BATTLE AND A PEACE IN JULY
> Wagram
The epic struggle at Wagram took place on 5 and 6 July, 1809. Why not revisit our Close-up here?
> The Franco-Russian summit at Tilsit
Napoleon I and Alexander I met on a raft floating on a river in Eastern Europe to discuss peace on 7 July, 1807. Why not revisit our Close-up here?
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SUMMER SERIES > NAPOLEONIC SITES
This week our Summer Series takes us to the UK, to St. Michael's Abbey in Farnborough. St Michael's was commissioned by the exiled Empress Eugénie in 1881, following the death of her husband, Napoleon III, in 1873 and of her only son, the Prince Imperial, in 1879. Designed by Gabriel Destailleur, this Victorian Gothic abbey built close to the Empress's residence in Farnborough. Eugénie would regularly go to pray beside the sarcophaguses of Scottish granite donated by Queen Victoria. In accordance with Eugenie's last wishes, on her death in 1920 she was buried above the main altar of the chapel in the crypt, flanked by the catafalcs of her husband and son in two side chapels. St Michael's Abbey is still used as a monastery by Benedictine monks, and is open to visitors with guided tours on Saturdays at 3pm.
> You can read more about St Michael's in Zoe Viney's article "The Empress Eugénie and the Imperial Vestments at St Michael's Abbey, Farnborough."
200 YEARS AGO > HORTENSE AFTER THE ABDICATION
With Paris encircled by the allies in late March, Louis Bonaparte was detailed by his brother to accompany Marie Louise to Blois, thereby leaving his wife alone. Hortense for her part hesitated before accepting the defeat and leaving for Rambouillet. It was there that she learned from Joseph and Jerome that Paris had capitulated. On 1 April, she headed further west to join her mother who had fled to her Château de Navarre near Evreux. Mother and daughter were there to learn that the Senate had deposed Napoleon. At this point we know that Hortense briefly considered retiring to her mother's estates on Martinique (so she wrote in a letter dated 9 April to her Lectrice and confidante). However, taking advice from her mother, she returned to Malmaison, entrusting herself to the goodwill of the Tsar Alexander I. On 30 May, Louis XVIII bowed to pressure from Alexander and granted the ex-Queen of Holland the duchy of Saint-Leu and annual a pension of 400,000 Francs, a solution that had been agreed with Napoleon at Fontainebleau. Cold comfort however, since Hortense had just lost her mother (see Bulletin 719). The new Duchesse de Saint-Leu was soon to be separated from her brother, who (halfway through June) headed to Bavaria to stay with his father-in-law. Alone in France, Hortense attended first to her own health, going on 25 July to Plombières to take the waters, leaving her sons at Saint-Leu. This essentially political gesture aimed at preventing her property from being confiscated and at showing that she trusted the new regime. Heading to Baden to meet her brother (she stayed there from 10 to 29 August), she then returned to France, to take the sea air at Le Havre up to 15 September. At the end of the month, the head of her husband's Cabinet Topographique, Briatte, informed Hortense that Louis was in Rome (Italy) and that he demanded that his sons join him. Hortense refused, and a court case loomed. Hortense was above all concerned that her sons should have a future in a restored France. And so in order to quash rumours of her participation in conspiracies against the king, she demanded and received an audience on 2 October. Reassured as to king's opinion of her, she moved to the Faubourg Saint-Germain (Paris). She was still living there when Napoleon landed at Golfe Juan almost a year later…
150 YEARS AGO > THE BOIS DE VINCENNES AND A HORTICULTURAL REVIEW
On 5 July 1864, a ‘Horticultural Review' in Le Moniteur sang the praises of Paris's latest public park, the Bois de Vincennes. Conceived by Napoleon III as a counterpart to the elite Bois de Boulogne in the affluent West of the city, which, as the Moniteur noted, was ‘the meeting place of the most elegant, of luxury and of opulence', the Bois de Vincennes was to be ‘the park of the artisan, the worker, the petit bourgeois, of he who is content with a little' to the East of the metropolis. Developed between 1855 and 1866, the park was far from just an eco-friendly gesture: the Moniteur noted that, following Haussmann's ideology, the park was designed to bring ‘air and light to all the areas once the most deprived', even to bring about ‘the complete regeneration of the old city.' The author of the Horticultural Review could barely contain his excitement at the progress that had been made, relishing in the description of ‘a gentle hill covered with laughing woods, with rejoicing grasses, an endless series of enchantments.' This was also a park with distinctly global aspirations: native trees were planted alongside ‘Japanese spindle-trees' and ‘Chinese thujas', all the while glorifying France's horticultural (and imperial) exploits. The author of the Moniteur article explicitly links the two, stating that ‘Rome is inseparable from the gardens of Luculus and Augustus' and that France, with its lineage of horticulturalists leading back to André le Nôtre, was once again at the forefront of both Empire and garden. For more information about nineteenth-century Parisian parks, check out our special itinerary, "Parisian Strolls of the Second Empire."
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks and Francesca Whitlum-Cooper
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 720, 27 JUNE-3 JULY, 2014
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- OPERATION ST HELENA
The Fondation Napoléon and the Souvenir Napoléonien, in association with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have announced the prolongation of its international fund-raising campaign to restore and save Napoleon I's residence on the island of St Helena. All the details regarding the campaign as well as donation forms and advice for donating from outside France, can be found on napoleon. org.
You can still donate online to the project via the Friends of the Fondation de France in the US here.
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EVENTS
A selection of events taking place now or in the coming weeks, taken from our What's on listings.
WHAT'S ON
Exhibitions
- The House of Hanover on the British throne 1714-1837 (Hannover/Celle, Germany) [17/05/2014 - 05/10/2014]
- Carpeaux (1827-1875), a Sculptor for the Empire, Musée d'Orsay (Paris, France) [24/06/2014 - 28/09/2014]
- The War of 1812-14: People and Places at the RiverBrink Art Museum (Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada) [22/03/2014 - 07/02/2015]
- "1814, la C(h)ampagne de Napoléon" - Exhibition in Troyes [16/05/2014 - 02/11/2014]
- Peace Breaks Out! London and Paris in the summer of 1814 (London) [20/06/2014 - 13/09/2014]
Walks
- Guided Walks around Napoleon's Elba [21/04/2014 - 08/10/2014]
PRESS REVIEW
- Special 'end of empire' edition of the French historical magazine L'Histoire (co-production with the Fondation Napoléon), N° 401 (in French)
SEEN ON THE WEB
- Monaco's Prince's Palace set to auction collection from Napoleon Museum
- Largest Napoleonic re-enactment ever staged planned for bicentenary of Battle of Waterloo
WAR OF 1812
- History Commemorated With Battle of Plattsburgh Bicentennial, Decisive Battle in War of 1812
- Five best books by American presidents – Roosevelt on the Naval War of 1812
THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
Between 30 June and 29 August, the library will operate its summer opening hours: Mondays and Tuesdays between 1pm-5pm and Thursdays 10am-3pm.
Online database catalogue
Digital Library
Contact
NAPOLEONICA LES ARCHIVES
Site of digitised Napoleonic archival material:
The working papers or 'imprimés' of the Napoleonic Conseil d'Etat, the correspondence of Vivant Denon, etc.
http://www.napoleonica.org
Contact: napoleonica@napoleon.org
NAPOLEONICA. LA REVUE
International peer-review interdisciplinary e-review on the history of the two Empires, bilingual French-English, 3 issues per year, free access.
Read the review on Cairn.info
Contact: napoleonicalarevue@napoleon.org
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