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THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN n° 725, 5-11 SEPTEMBER 2014
EDITO > JEAN FAVIER: A FRIEND HAS LEFT US
We were greatly saddened this summer to learn of the death of Jean Favier, member of the Institut de France. We knew that he had been ill, but the news of his death shocked us all. For this man with his incredible career, the great historian, the true servant of the state, had created firm friendships at the heart of the Fondation Napoléon. Many people did not know that this major medievalist was also an excellent connoisseur of all things Napoleon. Academically, his work on Charlemagne had led quite naturally to Bonaparte. Some amongst you will remember the dazzling paper he gave on Carolingian symbols of the Empire, delivered in front of 250 Napoleon enthusiasts during an imperial cruise. And who can forget that Jean Favier, as Director General of the Archives Nationales, settled the issue of the Napoleon documents (the archives of the imperial family) and brought back to France Joseph Bonaparte's papers. He would happily recount the story of how, two days before the deadline for the papers' purchase from the Wellington family (they had been seized at Vittoria), the Minister of Finances had still not released the funds. Jean Favier demanded an emergency meeting with the President of the Republic, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who made the telephone calls necessary to ensure the Minster of Finance got the job done, without which the Wellingtons would have sold the papers, at a much higher price, to other buyers. Just in the nick of time, the Joseph papers were saved! Finally, we remember Jean Favier's twenty-five years of service on the Jury for Prizes and Research Grants at the Fondation Napoléon. An assiduous and energetic committee member, who never arrived at a meeting without having read and weighed every contribution, he often intervened in the more heated debated and added, for everyone's benefit, a little light humour of the highest level. He lit up every lunch meeting with a thousand anecdotes.
French history has lost one of its masters, the state has lost one of its great servants, and the Fondation has lost a great friend. We offer our condolences again to his family.
Thierry Lentz
Director of the Fondation Napoléon
FONDATION NEWS
> BIBLIOTHEQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE
The Bibliothèque Martial-Lapeyre will be closed on Thursday 2 October.
> CERCLE D'ETUDES
On 17 September, Adam Zamoyski will speak on “Napoléon et le piège russe” at the Fondation Napoléon. Reserve your place by email now! (in French)
> RESEARCH GRANTS
Applications are open until 30 September for this year's Fondation Napoléon research grants for young researchers working on the history of the two Empires.
> And congratulations to Thierry Lentz, Director of the Fondation, whose recent book on the Congress of Vienna has been published in German (see "Just Published" on the right here!)
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BOOK OF THE MONTH > ATLAS DE PARIS SOUS NAPOLÉON, BY IRENE DELAGE AND CHANTAL PREVOT
This month we are delighted to announce the publication of the Atlas de Paris sous Napoléon, written by the Fondation's own Irène Delage and Chantal Prévot. A lavishly illustrated account of the building projects that saw Napoleon transform Paris into a glittering modern capital for his empire, the Atlas unveils the Paris of Napoleon's imagination, as well as the realities of life in the early nineteenth-century capital. A must-read this autumn!
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EUROPEAN HERITAGE WEEKEND > 20–21 SEPTEMBER
On 20 and 21 September, some 20 million visitors in 50 countries will participate in this year's European Heritage Weekend. Launched in 1985, the Heritage Weekend allows Europe's citizens to explore and discover their cultural heritage through free visits and events. Read more here!
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“IMPERIAL JUBILEE” AT RUEIL-MALMAISON > 15–21 SEPTEMBER
Between 15 and 21 September, Napoleon and Josephine will once again walk the streets of Rueil-Malmaison. The second “Imperial Jubilee” brings together more than 500 re-enactors, in a programme jam-packed with talks, film screenings, light shows, concerts, re-enactments and more. Read more about the Jubilee here.
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INTERNATIONAL NAPOLEONIC EXHIBITIONS > LAST CHANCE!
With summer finally drawing to a close, don't miss out on these major Napoleonic exhibitions: Models of the Imperial Navy, at Versailles; The Mound of Vendôme, at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (Montreal); and Peace Breaks Out! London and Paris in the Summer of 1814, at Sir John Soane's Museum (London).
200 YEARS AGO > MARIE WALEWSKA VISITS NAPOLEON IN EXILE
Distressed that the King of Naples, Joachin Murat, had confiscated her son's “majorat” or entail (i.e., the right of the eldest son to inherit title and property), Marie Walewska spent the summer of 1814 trying to move closer to Napoleon in order to secure the future of the young Alexander. She sent her brother to Elba at the end of July to try pleading her cause. Unlike the rejection she had received from the deposed emperor at Fontainebleau the previous spring, this new attempt at contact was received positively by Walewska's former lover. On 9 August Napoleon put pen to paper to invite her to Elba: “I will meet you with the interest you have always inspired in me, and as for the little one, of whom everyone tells me such good things, I have a real joy to see him and a strong desire to embrace him.” The exiled emperor had not, however, lost hope of welcoming his official spouse to Elba, so he decided to make the preparations for Marie Walewska's arrival secret, in the first instance to avoid the possibility of giving the islanders a “false joy” should they think it was Marie-Louise (Napoleon had said that she would join him at some point). His mother Letizia had also arrived on Elba in August, and she was very reluctant to allow such a dangerous meeting. Amongst the select few who were kept in the know was Bernotti, who also worked as a spy and who revealed the nature of this visit to the Consul Mariotti, who in turn reported it to Talleyrand. The choice of location fell on the Hermitage “la Madonna del Monte” (view a plan here), a remote place not easily accessible from the village below (Marciana) since there was only a small rough road. Napoleon arrived in Marciana on 21 August. Madame Mère arrived on 25 August, standing guard to provide a diversion for the Elbans and giving the impression that the Emperor was spending this short visit with her. Marie Walewska arrived with her son, her sister and her brother at twilight on 1 September. Napoleon had erected alongside the Hermitage a tent which was to serve him as an “official” place to sleep, while his “Polish wife” and her family were to sleep in the Hermitage itself. However, a rumour got out that the Empress and the Roi de Rome were on Elba: the cat was out of the bag. If Marie Walewska, who had recently been widowed, had toyed with the idea of staying on Elba at the Emperor's side, Napoleon undoubtedly set her straight the following morning. He was still hoping that Marie-Louise would join him and forget her liaison with Neipperg, which Napoleon had got wind of. A last meal was served in the Hermitage, during which Napoleon revealed the secret of Marie Walewska's stay on Elba to the Polish officers of the guard whom he had invited. Marie Walewska left discretely two days after her arrival, in the same nocturnal conditions, but there was such strong rain that Napoleon supposedly had a change of heart: faced with such inclement conditions for travelling, he apparently tried to prevent his “Polish family” from embarking once they had set off. The place of departure had already been changed as a precaution, however, and it was from Porto-Longone that the Walewski clan finally set sail.
150 YEARS AGO > THE “GRAND PRIX DE L'EMPEREUR”
In August 1864, Napoleon III founded, by imperial decree, “le Grand Prix de l'Empereur”, a prize of 100,000 francs to be awarded every five years by the Emperor to “the author of a great work of painting, sculpture or architecture, who is deemed worthy of this reward.” La Chronique des Arts et de la Curiosité of 20 August 1864 gives the background to the foundation of the prize: the Salon of 1864, it reports, had highlighted “the ever-growing number of talented artists devoting themselves to the lesser genres, while great art counted every day fewer and fewer disciples.” Maréchal Vaillant, Minister of the Emperor's Household and of the Fine Arts, addressed the Académie des Beaux-Arts at the prize-giving ceremony for the Salon of 1864, going so far as to tell his audience of exhibitors that “we have not seen here a really exceptional work, a truly great work in the fullest sense of the word.” Vaillant mourned the loss of Eugène Delacroix and Hippolyte Flandrin, and looked explicitly to Napoleon III to save the arts in France. Emile Galichon, author of the article in the Chronique des Arts, followed suit, declaring that “if it is not the responsibility of individuals or institutions to create geniuses, it is the role of the State and sovereigns alone to inspire great and wholesome work from our artists, and to elevate the level of public taste by demonstrating to all in a dazzling manner the types of art which are truly worthy of national rewards.” A prize of 100,000 livres could certainly be described as dazzling. The first, and only, “Grand Prix” was awarded in 1869 to the architect Joseph-Louis Duc for his design for the Palais du Justice de Paris. Ironically, the original building was destroyed just two years later by the infamous fires of the Paris Commune, but it was rebuilt to Duc's design in 1876.
Wishing you an excellent Napoleonic week,
Peter Hicks and Francesca Whitlum-Cooper
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 725, 5-11 SEPTEMBER, 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
- Niagara 1812 Legacy Council Programme of Commemorative Events [14/04/2014 - 19/10/2014]
- Germany: The House of Hanover on the British throne 1714-1837 [17/05/2014 - 05/10/2014]
- Napoléon Who?! Prince, Prisoner, President, Emperor. Louis Napoléon (1808-1873) [10/06/2014 - 10/10/2014]
- Models of the Imperial Navy: the collections of the Musée de la Marine at the Château de Versailles [17/06/2014 - 14/09/2014]
- The Mound of Vendôme at the Canadian Centre for Architecture [19/06/2014 - 14/09/2014]
- Carpeaux (1827-1875), a Sculptor for the Empire at the Musée d'Orsay [24/06/2014 - 28/09/2014]
- Napoleon's Bivouac: Imperial Luxury in the Countryside [28/06/2014 - 15/10/2014]
JUST PUBLISHED
- LENTZ, Thierry, 1815: Der Wiener Kongress und die Neugründung Europas, translated by Frank Sievers (Munich, 2014)
- PRICE, Munro, Napoleon: The End of Glory (Oxford, 2014)
- CLAYTON, Tim, Waterloo: Four Days that Changed Europe's Destiny (London, 2014)
PRESS REVIEW
- Stella Ghervas, “A Peace for the Strong,” in History Today
- Glenda Sluga, “Sexual Congress,” in History Today
- Napoleonic Historical Society Newsletter (July and August 2014)
SEEN ON THE WEB
- Napoleonic-era model up for auction
- As the bicentenary of Waterloo approaches, two books break through the chaos and confusion of the titanic battle
- As the bicentenary of Waterloo nears, two more admirable books provide fresh insights
WAR OF 1812
- 'Old Ironsides' gets last sail before 3-year rehab
- Museum celebrates, educates on U.S. wars
- Author of recent biography of Betsy Patterson Dr. Carol Berkin talks at Connecticut museum
- Slideshow: Old Fort Niagara under attack again
THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
The library is open on Mondays and Tuesdays from 1pm to 6pm and on Thursdays and Fridays from 10am to 3pm. The library is closed on Wednesdays.
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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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