| |
| |
EDITORIAL > VIENNA AND PARIS
Vienna and Paris are the capitals giving structure to this week's letter. Isabey's striking portrayal of a diplomatic scene is filled with hidden messages redolent of a personal project to move to the enlightened, absolute Vienna. Paris, on the other hand, is the site of the re-installation of the Napoleon statue at Les Invalides, the home of an exhibition of Waterloo-inspired artworks, the place for the Souvenir Napoléonien's conference next week, and the subject of an online show of industrial history. Paris, locus of experimentation in old and new politics. So take your online journey to the capitals of old Europe – synonyms of the Ancien Régime (triumphant at Vienna) and the Revolution (which suffered in Napoleon's fall) - with Patrice Guennifey's talk, given as part of the Fondation Napoléon sponsored Chaire Napoléon, on the subject of Napoleon and the Revolution, to guide our thoughts.
Enjoy!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Head of International Relations, Fondation Napoléon
THE FONDATION NAPOLEON
> ST HELENA APPEAL: a list of contributors to the appeal for the restoration of Longwood House on St Helena where Napoleon spent his last years has been updated on our website (pdf). The appeal came to an end 31 December 2014.
> THE ANNUAL REPORT 2014 of the Fondation Napoléon is now online (pdf in French).
|
|
|
| |
PAINTING OF THE MONTH > THE CONGRESS OF VIENNA
Jean-Baptiste Isabey was in Vienna during the period of the Vienna congress in 1815 and made many portraits and drawings of the various personalities who attended the negotiations. Our painting of the month, is a group portrait of the main protagonists, which was bought by George IV and is now at Windsor Castle (UK). There exists a more freely-drawn preparatory study in the collection of the Louvre, in Paris, which can be seen at the moment at the Musée Carnavalet in Paris as part of the exhibition "Le congrès de Vienne ou l'invention d'une nouvelle Europe" organised by the Ministry of Foreign affairs. Make sure to click on the 'Increase' button, to see both versions and an engraving by Godefroy. (image © HM Queen Elizabeth II).
|
|
|
| |
EXHIBITION > PARIS OF THE INDUSTRIAL ERA 1750-1920
From 7 to 22 April the Town hall of the 15th Arrondissement in Paris is presenting an exhibition of more than 400 objects and documents, “Les Paris de l'Industrie, 1750-1920”, telling the story of industry in the French capital. You can take a look at some of the exhibits via this online slideshow (links in French).
CONFERENCE IN PARIS > 1815, THE END OF A REIGN
14 and 15 April: The symposium organised by the Souvenir Napoléonien and the Fondation Napoléon called “l'année 1815, la fin d'un règne” will take place this week at ASIEM, 6 rue Albert Lapparent, in the 7th Arrondissement of Paris.
|
|
|
| |
EXHIBITION > WATERLOO 1815-2015: VISIONS OF WAR
The town of Boulogne-Billancourt (just outside Paris) is presenting an exhibition, 'Waterloo 1815-2015: Visions guerrières', which will take place at the Bibliothèque Paul Marmottan, in the period 15 April to 11 July 2015, to mark the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo. The history of the battle is taken as a pretext for reflections on memory and commemoration, and the artist considers the modern vision of war. The seventy works by the illustrator Nicolas Renard on display provide a new take on the traditional iconography of the battle of Waterloo.
|
|
|
| |
NAPOLEON'S STATUE IS BACK AT LES INVALIDES
The statue of Napoleon by Charles Emile Marie Seurre (1798-1858) overlooking the courtyard of "Les Invalides" in Paris has resumed its position after several months of restoration, as reported in the 8 o'clock news of the French TV channel TF1, on 2 April (video, 3min 2s). Some photos of the latest event as well as historic images of the statue being installed in 1911 can been seen here in the Facebook album of the Musée de l'armée in Paris. (photo 1911 © Paris - Musée de l'Armée).
WATERLOO SKELETON IDENTIFIED
After an extensive investigation, the only complete skeleton ever to have been found at Waterloo (located beneath a modern-day carpark) may finally have been identified. Military historian Gareth Glover believes (external link) the soldier to be Friedrich Brandt a private in the King's German Legion of George III, who was killed (at the age of 23) by a musket ball that was still lodged between his ribs when his remains were found in 2012.
GROGNARD'S HOUSE TO BE RESTORED
A ruined house at Hesdin (North of France), which once belonged to Pierre Brassard, a "grognard" of Napoleon, is going to be restored. La Voix du Nord reports (‘external link in French).
PODCAST> CHAIRE NAPOLÉON LECTURE SERIES > PATRICE GUENIFFEY
As part of the Chaire Napoleon lecture series organised by the Fondation Napoléon at the Institut catholique d'études supérieures at La Roche-sur-Yon, Patrice Gueniffey gave a talk on 26 March on the topic of “Bonaparte et la Révolution française”. For those who missed it, you can download a recording of it here (in French).
|
|
|
| |
2OO YEARS AGO > NAPOLEON ATTEMPTS TO JOIN THE CONGRESS
Upon his return to Paris, Napoleon had put Caulaincourt in charge of the ministry of Foreign Affairs. On 2 April 1815, he sent him to Vienna with a request to take part in the Congress negotiations. These overtures had no impact on the Congress of Vienna, and Caulaincourt was not even received. Indeed, on 4 April, Castlereagh notified the French Emperor's envoy that the European monarchs were united against Napoleon.
150 YEARS AGO > END OF AMERICAN CIVIL WAR AND ASSASSINATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
On 9 April 1865, the Confederate States army General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union army General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House (a village in Virginia) effectively ending the American Civil War. As the news spread, confederate forces began to lay down their arms. Five days later, at 11am 14 April, Grant met with President Abraham Lincoln and the cabinet, fortunately for him declining Lincoln's invitation to the theatre that evening. Infamously, the president and his wife (accompanied by Major Henry Rathbone and the latter's fiancée Clara Harris) saw the farce Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., and during the third act, the actor and Confederate sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth, entered the presidential box and shot Lincoln in the back of the head shouting "sic semper” ("Thus always [is the end of tyrants]"). He wounded Rathbone with a knife, then jumped from the balcony, and despite breaking his leg in the process fled the theatre. Doctors moved the unconscious president to a bed in a house across the street, where he died the next morning 15 April. (For an eyewitness account see here. For Wilkes Booth's own account written while on the run, see here). The same evening, Booth's co-conspirators Lewis Powell and David Herold tried to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, who would survive the attack. Lincoln was mourned both in the North and the South. Millions of people attended Lincoln's funeral procession in Washington, D.C. on April 19, and millions more witnessed as his body was transported 1,500 miles (2,700 km) through New York to Springfield, Illinois. The news took twelve days to reach Europe by steamboat and, it was Reuters who, thanks to infrastructure already set up to bring regular news about the American Civil War, famously first delivered the news to London on 26 April. The announcement appeared in France in the official Moniteur Universel on 27 April. The following day, that newspaper reproduced an emotional telegraph that Edwin M. Stanton, American Minister of War, sent to the US Embassy in London, giving details of the circumstances of the assassination, and also informed its readers that the Emperor Napoleon III had sent a messenger to the United States Ambassador in Paris “asking him to convey to the vice-president, Mr Andrew Johnson, the deepest sorrow and horror that these heinous crimes have inspired in His Majesty”.
Wishing you an excellent Napoleonic week!
Peter Hicks and Rebecca Young (with Syamala Roberts)
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN No. 754, 10 - 16 APRIL, 2015
Interested in the work of the Fondation Napoléon? Why not participate, either generally or in a specific project, by making a donation?
© This Napoleon.org weekly bulletin is published by the Fondation Napoléon. Reproduction or all or part of this bulletin is forbidden, without prior agreement of the Fondation Napoléon.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
WATERLOO BICENTENARY 1815-2015
What's on this year relating to the Bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo: commemorations, books, exhibitions, news ...
WATERLOO > WHAT'S ON (updated 10/4/15)
WATERLOO > SEEN ON THE WEB (updated 10/4/15)
WATERLOO > READING LIST (updated 10/4/15)
Follow us on Facebook and on Twitter!
napoleon.org - related content:
JUST PUBLISHED
BAMFORD Andrew, With Wellington's Outposts: The Peninsular and Waterloo Letters of John Vandeleur (London 2015)
WHAT'S ON (see our website for all events)
Talks
- "Wellington and the French: a family view lecture by Lady Jane Wellesley", British Museum [30/04/2015]
- "Waterloo, Stories of Love, Death and War", talk by Alwyn Collinson, Army & Navy Club, London [30/04/2015]
- "The Hundred Days: Napoleon's Road from Elba to Waterloo", talk by Mark Adkin, Army & Navy Club, London [11/06/2015]
- "Napoleon the Great", lecture by Andrew Roberts, British Museum [19/06/2015]
- Battle of Waterloo Commemorative Walks in London, UK [21/03/2015 - 20/06/2015]
Conferences
- Sixth Wellington Congress 2015, University of Southampton, UK. [10/04/2015 - 12/04/2015]
- Waterloo 200 Conference Sandhurst, UK [16/04/2015 - 17/04/2015]
- Conference "L'année 1815", Paris [14/04/2015 - 15/04/2015]
- Oswego International War of 1812 Symposium New York, US [17/04/2015 - 19/04/2015]
- Bicentenary of the battle of Ochiobello Ochiobello, Rovigo, Italy [10-11/04/2015]
Exhibitions
- Napoléon et Paris, rêves d'une capitale, Musée Carnavalet, Paris [08/04/2015 - 30/08/2015]
- Le congrès de Vienne, l'invention d'une Europe nouvelle, Musée Carnavalet, Paris, France [08/04/2015 - 30/07/2015]
- Napoléon-Wellington: Destins Croisés,Wellington Museum, Waterloo, Belgium [21/03/2015 - 31/07/2015]
- Waterloo 1815-2015: Visions of war, Bibliothèque Paul Marmotton, Paris, FR [15/04/2015 - 11/07/2015]
- Pie VII face à Napoléon : la Tiare dans les serres de l'Aigle Fontainebleau, FR [28/03/2015 - 29/06/2015]
- 'Alexander, Napoleon and Josephine: a story of war, art and friendship' Hermitage, Amsterdam, NL [28/03/2015 - 08/11/2015]
- Modern Heroism: Printmaking and the legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge UK [03/02/2015 - 28/06/2015]
- Napoleon on St. Helena: Exile and sincerity (photgraphy) Maison Bonaparte, Ajaccio, Corsica [27/03/2015 - 28/06/2015]
- Love Bites: Caricatures by James Gillray [01/04/2015 – 21/06/2015] and 'Great British Drawings' [01/04/2015 - 31/08/2015], both at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford UK
Commemorations
- Living History weekend honouring General Andrew Jackson and the victors of New Orleans - Natchez, Washington, Mississippi [24/04/2015 - 26/04/2015]
- Major Percy victory route (recreated by bike): The Ride of the Lions, Waterloo 200 [17/06/2015 - 20/06/2015]
WATERLOO > WHAT'S ON (updated 10/4/15)
SEEN ON THE WEB (all external links)
- Eye-witness account of Duke of Wellington narrowly missing death by inches on the eve of Waterloo
- Wordsworth the War Poet emerges from the Napoleonic war clouds
- This week in history: British brutality followed the fall of Badajoz
- Paris exhibition celebrates Napoleon's last 100 days as emperor (Napoléon et Paris) (VIDEO)
- Battle of Waterloo: Cambridge University Library uncovers rarely seen treasures
- Non-domicile regime is tax avoidance with roots in history
- Results of auction “Wellington, Waterloo and the Napoleonic Wars” at Bonhams, 1st April 2015
- Georgian papers to be digitised
"WATERLOO" > SEEN ON THE WEB (link to our website, updated 10/4/15)
THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
The library is normally open on Mondays and Tuesdays from 1pm to 6pm and on Thursdays and Fridays from 10am to 3pm. The library is closed on Wednesdays.
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
ACCOUNT DETAILS
To change your email address, unsubscribe, and sign up for the French information bulletin.
Problems with a link in this letter?
- Check the homepage on: http://www.napoleon.org/en/home.asp
- View back numbers of the bulletin: http://www.napoleon.org/en/space/information_bulletin/archive_lettre.asp
- Contact us: information@napoleon.org
|
|
