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CITIUS, ALTIUS, FORTIUS?
When it comes to the sporting world, the motto is always "faster, higher, stronger"!
We have just learnt with dismay that the French musical association, “Le Concert de la Loge Olympique”, refounded in 2015 based on a society which existed in Paris from 1786 to 1789, is being forced to change its name, at the behest of lawyers representing ... the French National Olympic and Sports Committee. It turns out that the said Committee considers itself to be the owner of the adjective "Olympique" and denies anyone else the right to use it in an activity that could be lucrative (the mind boggles ...). One wonders how a humble musical society could impede the activities of an organization with such financial and media clout.
“Le Concert de la Loge Olympique” was originally a musical society founded by a Masonic lodge of musicians. Its main conductor was Joseph Bologne de Saint-George (1745-1799, [better known as the “Chevalier de Saint-George”]. The society was founded on the principal of subscriptions entitling each subscriber to attend twelve concerts per year, some of which took place in the Salle des Cent-Suisses at the Tuileries Palace. Marie-Antoinette was present at several of them. It was this same “Olympic” Lodge which commissioned Haydn to write his Paris Symphonies. The “Loge Olympique” ceased its activities at the beginning of the Revolution.
Now the lady in charge of the collections here at the Fondation Napoléon is beginning to get a little nervous. After all, among the items for which she is responsible stands a plate from the precious Sevres dinner service called the "Service Olympique". Will we still be allowed, she wonders, to call this plate by its historic title in future exhibitions or can we also expect a visit from the bailiffs sent by the defenders of sport?
The lack of common sense by this French National Committee in this tiny affair is, unfortunately, symptomatic of the age we live in. As the Olympic motto itself cries out "Faster, higher, stronger." You said it ….
Thierry Lentz, director of the Fondation Napoléon
Image : Plate « Hébé versant le nectar à Jupiter » (Hebe pouring out nectar for Jupiter), service Olympique, coll. Fondation Napoléon
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THE PALAIS AND MUSEE DE LA LEGION D'HONNEUR
These two symbolic places are in the spotlight this February. The “Palais de la Légion d'honneur” has recently undergone a five-year period of restoration, initiated and guided by Army General Georgelin, Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour. The Musée de la Légion d'Honneur has also been refurbished, and on 17 February this institution - which boasts one of the richest collections of honorary decorations in the world - inaugurated its new display which highlights the glory of the order and what is more, is much more user friendly. It's just around the corner from the Musée d'Orsay, so if you're in Paris, why not drop in?
OBJECT OF THE MONTH > GRAND-CROIX INSIGNIA, BELIEVED TO HAVE BELONGED TO NAPOLEON III
This Grand Cross made of gold, diamonds, emeralds, rubies and enamel which entered the collections of the Museum of the Légion d'Honneur in 2008 is believed to have belonged to Napoleon III. Find out more about the complex history of this extraordinary object in our file here.
Take a peek at the Museum of the Légion d'honneur's collection and the Spada Collection.
Details about visiting the Museum (external links in English).
Keeping up with the times, the Musée de la Légion d'Honneur now has it's own Facebook page!
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YOUNG HISTORIANS > NAPOLEON III
Our younger readers can now become experts on the "other Napoleon", Napoleon III, who was himself quite an anglophile in more ways than one, having spent time both in Britain and the United States. Find out about his life, his reign and the Second French Empire.
NAPOLEONIC COMMUNITY
The Amis de Napoléon III – Société historique du Second Empire ("Friends of Napoleon III - Second Empire Historical Society”) will be celebrating its 50th anniversary at Fontainebleau on Thursday 3 March. Among other festivities during this day there will be a talk by Droguet Vincent, Head Curator of Heritage, and Nicolas Person, historian, on "The Second Empire at the Chateau de Fontainebleau."
Information, complete program and registration by email or at +33 (0) 9 51 56 96 86. Facebook page of the association.
NEWS OF A NAPOLEON FOUNDATION SCHOLAR
We are delighted to announce that Margarita Cifuentes Cuencas, who received a Fondation Napoléon grant in 2009 for her work on The Imperial Regiment "Alexander. Spaniards in Napoleon's army, successfully defended her doctoral thesis on 15 January 2016.
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CANADA TO PLAY HOST TO NAPOLEON AND PARIS
A version of the Musée Carnavalet's exhibition “Napoleon et Paris” is to travel to the Canadian Museum of History (external link) later this year (June 16, 2016 – January 8, 2017). The Fondation Napoleon is delighted to be lending several pieces from its collection. You can get a glimpse of what's in store for the Canadian public via our photo album of the "Napoleon and Paris" exhibition which took place last year at the Musée Carnavalet.
This image: detail from Adrien Dauzats and Camille-Felix Bélanger's "Un jour de Revue sous l'Empire, 1810", (a day of festivities under the Empire) oil on canvas, 1862, (© Musée du Louvre), showing the Arc de Triomphe du Carousel, in front of the Palais des Tuileries (destroyed by fire in 1871).
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LAST DAYS > EXHIBITIONS
> Napoléon (1769-1821), sa vie à travers les femmes" at the Tourist Centre of Wool and Fashion, Belgium, is dedicated to the women who shared the life of the First French Emperor (ends 28 February).
> ‘Delacroix et l'antique' (Delacroix and antiquity) (Musée Delacroix, Paris)
Protégé of both Talleyrand and the Duke of Morny, Delacroix was admitted to the Académie des beaux-arts, having already been rejected six times, and it was here that Delacroix undertook his first formal academic study of painting. This exhibition explores the painter's fascination with Antiquity. (Ends 7 March).
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EXHIBITION > l'unita d'Italia da Napoleone a Diaz
The exhibition “The Unification of Italy. From Napoleon to Diaz” which starts this weekend, is part of a cultural project aimed at the promotion and enhancement of the values and history of the Romagna people from the Middle Ages to the present day. It takes place at the Asilo Rosetti of Forlimpopoli from 21 February until 27 March.
Wishing you an excellent Napoleonic week!
Peter Hicks and Rebecca Young
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN No. 790, 19-25 February, 2016
Interested in the work of the Fondation Napoléon? Why not participate, either generally or towards a specific project, by making a donation?
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WHATS ON (see our website for all events)
Exhibitions
- Vigée Le Brun: Woman Artist in Revolutionary France, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA [15/02/2016 - 15/05/2016] NEW
Franz Xaver Winterhalter. Painter in Her Majesty's service, Augustinermuseum, Freiburg, Germany[28/11/2015 - 20/03/2016] NEW
- Quando Roma parlava Francese: Feste e monumenti della prima Repubblica Romana (1798-1799), Museo Napoleonico di Roma, Italy [11/12/2015 - 13/03/2016]
- Franceschini-Pietri, Napoleon III's secretary Palais Fesch, Ajaccio , Corsica [27/11/2015 - 09/05/2016]
- Delacroix et l'antique (Delacroix and Antiquity), Musée Delacroix, Paris, FR [09/12/2015 - 07/03/2016]
- Ingres, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain [24/11/2015 - 27/03/2016]
- Le secret de l'État. Surveiller, protéger, informer. XVIIe-XXe siècle, Archives Nationales, Paris [04/11/2015 - 28/02/2016] LAST DAYS
- Visages de l'effroi : violence et fantastique de David à Delacroix, Musée de la Vie Romantique, Paris, FR [03/11/2015 - 28/02/2016] LAST DAYS
- Napoléon (1769-1821), sa vie à travers les femmes, Tourist Centre of Wool and Fashion, Verviers, Belgium [10/10/2015 - 28/02/2016] LAST DAYS
Conferences
- Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, 1750-1850: Annual Conference, Hilton Convention Center, Louisiana State University-Shreveport, USA [25/02/2016 - 27/02/2016]
- Napoleon and the economy: Money, banking, crises and trade under the First Empire, Banque de France, Paris [23/03/2016 - 24/03/2016] SOLD OUT
Talks
- What does the princess want? Marie Bonaparte between Literature, Biology and Psychoanalysis, Freud Museum, Vienna, Austria [25/02/2016]
- Victualling Nelson's Navy: Food and Cooking on the High Seas in the Age of the Napoleonic Wars, The Naval Club of Toronto, Ontario CA [15/03/2016]
THE BIBLIOTHÈQUE MARTIAL-LAPEYRE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
Special opening times for the February half-term holidays (between 22 February and 4 March 2016): The library will be open on
Mondays and Tuesdays, 1-5pm
Thursdays 10am-3pm.
Closed on Fridays.
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
The Fondation Napoléon's Institutional website:
www.fondationnapoleon.org
ACCOUNT DETAILS
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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
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