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THIS MONTH'S ARTICLE
Drouot, 'Sage of the Grande Armée', by Jacques Juillet
As Napoleon said, 'Drouot would have been as happy on 40 sous per day as on a sovereign's allowance. His morals, his integrity, his lack of affectation, would have brought him honour in the greatest days of the Roman Republic... I had good reason to rank him superior to a great many of my marshals. I do not hesitate to believe him capable of commanding 100,000 men.' Read all about it in this detailed biography (translated by Fred S. Wheeler). They don't write them like this any more!
SAINT HELENA: RESTORATION WORK AT LONGWOOD
As part of its three-year partnership with the Domaines Français de Sainte-Hélène, the Fondation Napoléon is helping to restore Longwood and to bring it back to what it looked like at the time of Napoleon's imprisonment on the island. The results of this first year of works can be found on the Fondation Napoléon News page.
REMINDER: VIVANT DENON'S CORRESPONDANCE ON NAPOLEONICA
As director of the Musée Napoléon (today the Louvre), appointed by Bonaparte on 19 Brumaire, An X (10 November, 1801), Vivant Denon (1747-1825) corresponded with the great and the good of the day. On the site napoleonica.org we have published the complete administrative correspondance (nearly four thousand full-text searchable letters, of which more than a hundred addressed to Napoleon I) of the man who became Napoleon's master of taste. Taken with permission from the book Vivant Denon, directeur des musées sous le Consulat et l'Empire (1802-1815) by Marie-Anne Dupuy, Isabelle le Masne de Chermont, Elaine Williamson, published in 1999 by Réunion des Musées Nationaux. In French.
The historical interest of this collection, both for the art historian and the First Empire specialist, is obvious. And it can be exploited in many different ways. See for example the fascinating story of Napoleon and the horses on the Brandenburg Gate, recounted in detail in Denon's correspondance with Napoleon.
Emilie Barthet
Chargée de mission
TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO
1 Pluviôse, An XI (21 January, 1803), notice was finally given of the names of the members of the Commission appointed by the Minister of the Interior to judge the sketches in the competition for a work in honour of the Peace of Amiens and the law on religious worship. They were David, Vincent, Meynier and Girodet, painters, Julien, Chaudet, Giraud, sculptors, Percier, Chalgrin and Raymond, architects, Visconti and Millin, antiquarians. The jury was to make its decision known to the public on 6 Pluviôse.
2 Pluviôse, An XI (22 January, 1803), the Journal des Débats noted that "the government has just made it known to its prefects that it is its intention that no marriages between negresses (sic) and whites or between negroes (sic) and white women should be accepted".
2 Pluviôse, An XI (22 January, 1803), the Interior Minister, Chaptal, suffered the tragedy of losing his daughter when she was only 15, after three days of illness.
Journal des débats, 3 pluviôse an XI
3 Pluviôse, An XI (23 January, 1803), the Institut was organised in four classes, entitled "Académies": that of the physical sciences and maths (10 sections, including the new one, 'geography and navigation': geometry, mecanics, astronomy, general physics, mineralogy, botany, rural economics and the veterinary art, anatomy and zoology, medecine and surgery), that of French liturature and language (whose task was to compile the 'Dictionnaire de la langue française'), that of history and ancient literature, and that of fine arts (painting, sculpture, architecture, engraving, music). The 'classe' of Moral and Political sciences, the hideout of the "idéologues", was suppressed.
4 Pluviôse, An XI (24 January, 1803), the First Consul left Saint-Cloud to spend the rest of the winter in Paris (some council meetings were however held at Saint-Cloud in the month of Pluviôse / February)
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
Snippets
- Venetian Napoleonic brouhaha continues
- Napoleonic Society of America Director Bob Snibbe resigns
Press review
- Contents of latest number of the Napoleonic Society of America's Members' Bulletin
Web sites
- ZDF website to accompany the Napoleon television series (in German)
- Las Cases Mémorial de Sainte-Hélène in English online (work in progress)
- Bourrienne, Mémoires in English downloadable on Gutenberg Project
Go to the Napoleonic Directory, select Web sites, then History
What's on
- Fair: Napoleonic Fair, London
- Exhibition: La Tavola di Elisa, Lucca
- Auction: Sale of 19th-century drawings, including a portrait of Junot by David (Christie's New-York)
- Exhibition: Napoleon and Alexander I in Hildesheim (Germany)
- Exhibition: The first Italian Republic, 1802-1805
- Exhibition: Seat of Empire
The monthly titles
- Book of the Month: Revolutionary France, by Malcolm Crook
- This month's picture, Jupiter and Thetis by Ingres
- Article of the Month, Drouot, 'Sage of the Grande Armée', by Jacques Juillet
- In the Collectors Corner, The Roi de Rome's Lead Soldiers
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