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A GIFT FROM HIS MOST SERENE HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT II OF MONACO TO THE FONDATION NAPOLEON
Everyone has heard about the major sale of the collection of the Musée Napoléonien de la Principauté de Monaco, which will shortly become a museum dedicated to the Grimaldi dynasty (the sale continues in January). For us at the Fondation Napoléon, the dispersal of this collection recently took a happy and unexpected turn. On 15 December, His Most Serene Highness Prince Albert II of Monaco gave two pieces from the collection to the Fondation Napoléon. At the Embassy of Monaco in Paris, Prince Albert presented to the President of the Fondation, M. Victor-André Masséna, Prince d'Essling, a campaign writing case given to Maréchal Lannes by the Emperor himself as well as a rare autograph letter from André Masséna to a member of his family, written before said General became the “darling child of victory.” These gifts now join the collection of the Fondation Napoléon. They will be presented in greater detail on our website in the New Year. The writing case, which is in excellent condition and still contains its inkpot (which is extremely rare for this kind of object) and which, it would seem, belonged to the Emperor before it was given to Lannes, will feature in an exhibition on “les bivouacs de l'Empereur” organized in 2015 by the Mobilier National in Paris.
We are delighted with these gifts and offer a thousand thanks to the Sovereign Prince for his generous attention that reinforces the quality and reputation of our collection. This gift from Prince Albert is a wonderful Christmas present for our Fondation, which, it must be said, has been very well behaved this year! As 2014 draws to a close and our weekly newsletter takes a little break, I wish you, on behalf of our entire team, a very Happy Christmas and an excellent start to 2015.
Thierry Lentz
Director of the Fondation Napoléon
FONDATION NAPOLEON > CHRISTMAS BREAK
The Fondation Napoléon and the Bibliothèque Martial-Lapeyre will be closed between Wednesday 24 December 2014 and Monday 5 January 2015. Our first newsletter of 2015 will be sent on Friday 9 January. We look forward to welcoming you again in the New Year!
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OBJECT OF THE MONTH > THE BONAPARTE FAMILY NATIVITY SCENE
With its finely executed ivory figures, its ebony and mahogany decoration, and its elaborate composition, the Bonaparte family's nativity scene is one of the Musée Nationale de la Maison Bonaparte's most fascinating pieces. Read more about its exceptional workmanship and the extraordinary stories surrounding its provenance here.
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OUR CHRISTMAS READING LIST
With the winter holidays fast approaching, 'tis the season to be jolly - and to catch up on all your Napoleonic reading! Consult our 2014 Christmas Selection to see which Napoleonic books should be on your Christmas list this year. We've got biographies, military histories, novels, and works of general historical interest, so there should be something for everyone's stocking!
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DIGITAL LIBRARY > A NEW BIBLIOGRAPHY: “THE LOUVRE: FROM REVOLUTION TO FIRST EMPIRE”
As part of the partnership between the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and the Fondation Napoléon, we have a brand new digital bibliography for you. “The Louvre: From Revolution To First Empire” brings together drawings, watercolours and prints of Paris's most famous palace, from the time of the French Revolution to Napoleon's Empire. You can discover our other bibliographies – on Elba, Josephine, St Helena – here.
24 DECEMBER, 1814 > THE END OF THE WAR OF 1812
On 24 December, 1814, the signature of the Treaty of Ghent between the United States and Great Britain brought to a close two and a half years of conflict in three theatres. The War of 1812 had been fought at sea, along America's Atlantic coast; on land and on lake, along the American-Canadian border; and in the American South, along the Gulf Coast. Even the White House was burned down… There's been a huge amount of activity this year to commemorate the bicentenary – exhibitions, commemorations, re-enactments, publications – but there's also been a strong line of questioning asking why the War of 1812 is the forgotten war – “The War No-One Wants to Commemorate.” The War of 1812 did not result in any territorial changes; it is often interpreted as just one element of the wider Napoleonic Wars. Yet as this year's efforts have shown, it was a major international conflict, whose ramifications extend far beyond the soil (and sea) on which it was fought. If you're still in any doubt, this extended reading list and review should convince you that the War of 1812 deserves to be remembered.
200 YEARS AGO > NEW YEAR 1815 ON ELBA
The last months of 1814 had been marked by rumours of a kidnapping plot against Napoleon (see letters 726 and 727). Napoleon himself had heard so much about them that he had strengthened the defence systems of the palace of I'Mulini during the autumn, and had made extra efforts to guard the coast, for fear of an enemy landing. If the Allies were busy with the Congress of Vienna, they continued to keep the Emperor under close surveillance: at the beginning of January on Elba, Tiberio Pacca, the Pope's delegate to Civitavecchia, managed to get hold of the letters exchanged between Napoleon and his uncle, Cardinal Fesch. This correspondence, hidden amongst two boxes of books, did not reveal anything much beyond what the allied spies of Louis XVIII and Talleyrand had already suspected: Napoleon and Murat were in contact again, a letter from 27 December proved it… Other rumours were also circulating at the end of 1814: some of the French population, notably the military, were unhappy and this worried the Allies, who saw the ranks of the Bonapartists growing along with the possibility of a plot to bring the fallen Emperor back to France. By the end of December, the greatest worries did not belong to the exiled Emperor but to the Allied Powers: Napoleon appeared newly serene, for example when he gave a banquet, organised by his sister Pauline, on 1 January, 1815. All Elba's dignitaries, including the British, were invited. Costumes were obligatory, and Pauline, dressed as a Neapolitan, went to particularly elaborate lengths to amuse her brother. As the New Year dawned over Elba's festivities, the Allies' apprehension about the Emperor's plans would almost have seemed unreasonable…
150 YEARS AGO > THE CHRISTMAS TREE DURING THE SECOND EMPIRE
Although its origins can be traced back to fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Germany, it was only in the nineteenth century that the Christmas tree (Tannenbaum in German or the arbre de Noël or sapin de Noël in French) became a widespread custom in Europe. Prince Albert is generally credited with introducing the Christmas tree to Britain: although Queen Victoria remembered having Christmas trees as a child at the court of her Hanoverian predecessors, it was after her marriage to Albert in 1841 that the Christmas tree grew in prominence and popularity. Across the Channel, the German-born Duchesse d'Orléans, Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, supposedly introduced the Christmas tree to Paris in 1840. The emergence of the middle class with its disposable income ensured that the decoration of a Christmas tree (which had, until the mid-nineteenth century, been a largely royal and aristocratic practice) became a much-loved tradition. In December 1864, poet François Fertiault published a poem called simply L'Arbre de Noël to celebrate this “joyful guide” to the festive season and its significance. Already, it seems, the Christmas tree was associated with gifts and offerings (“the Tree has something for everyone”), and with magical, atmospheric decorations:
Oh how its light grows!
The fertile wood is unveiled,
Each leaf wears a star,
The Christmas Tree glows.
Wishing you excellent Napoleonic holidays and a very happy New Year!
Peter Hicks and Francesca Whitlum-Cooper (with Emma Simmons)
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN No. 740, 19 DECEMBER, 2014 - 8 JANUARY, 2015
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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 that the international fund-raising campaign to restore and save Napoleon I's residence on the island of St Helena will accept donations until 31 December, 2014. 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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PRESS REVIEW
- “The Fires of Paris: Why do people still fight about the Paris Commune?” in The New Yorker
- "Whose War of 1812? Competing Memories of the Anglo-American Conflict"
JUST PUBLISHED
- FLANAGAN, Mark, and GRIFFITHS, Edward, A Royal Cookbook: Seasonal Recipes from Buckingham Palace (London, 2014)
WHAT'S ON
- Bicentenary of Napoleon's Presence on the Island of Elba [11/04/2014 - 26/02/2015]
- Treasures from the Royal Archives [17/05/2014 - 25/01/2015]
- "Coaching the Congress Along" - Exhibition at the Carriage Museum, Vienna [18/09/2014 - 09/06/2015]
- "Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art [21/10/2014 - 01/02/2015]
- "Les Adieux à l'Impératrice" at Malmaison [05/11/2014 - 02/02/2015]
- “Cairo to Constantinople: Early Photographs of the Middle East” [07/11/2014 - 22/02/2015]
SEEN ON THE WEB
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WAR OF 1812
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- “The Battle of New Orleans and the War of 1812”: A symposium by The Historic New Orleans Collection
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