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THIS MONTH'S PAINTING
The Seine and Notre-Dame de Paris, by Johan Barthol Jongkind
As an accompaniment to the current exhibition of the works of Jongkind (1819-1891), which
just opened at the Musée d'Orsay, we bring you here a painting of this Dutch landscape
artist and precursor of Impressionism, his view of the Seine and Notre-Dame de Paris
executed in 1864.
JACQUES JOURQUIN VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUT NAPOLEON
On 15 May, 2004, Jacques Jourquin was elected Vice-President of the Institut Napoléon.
Mr Jourquin, historian and previously director of the both the publishing house Editions
Tallandier and the Revue Historia, currently director of the Revue du Souvenir Napoléonien,
and administrator of the Institut Napoléon, is also a member of the jury for the Fondation
Napoléon's History Grands Prix. He has published many remarkable works, most recently
Journal inédit du Retour des Cendres du mameluck Ali (Tallandier, 2003).
This academic society was founded in 1932 by Edouard Driault, Professor of History and
founder in 1912 of the Revue des Etudes napoléoniennes. Jean Tulard, emeritus professor of
the University Paris IV-Sorbonne and member of the Institut, was its president from 1974 to
1999 - when he became Honorary President. The current president (and Tulard's successor) is
Jacques-Olivier Boudon, Professor of History at the University Paris IV-Sorbonne.
WATERLOO: REPRESENTATION AND 'MEMOIRE' IN EUROPE
The organisation of the historical sites such as that of Waterloo has become never been
easy, particularly in terms of cultural policy. It comes as no surprise that the "18th June,
1815" have been the subject of much critical attention, most notably in a conference
organised by the Association Franco-Européenne de Waterloo (AFEW). The acts of this
conference include articles on subjects such as the aim of monuments, ideological
representations, icons, heritage preservation, museological aims, classification of sites
and touristic development of the site. As such these acts are set firmly with the
historiographical tradition devoted to Napoleonic 'realms of memory' (lieux de mémoire').
Recipients of the napoleon.org news bulletin can get a special rate in the purchase of the
acts, published by AFEW, simply by presenting a copy of the news bulletin:
Association Franco-Européenne de Waterloo
Cortil du Coq Hardy
Verte Voie, 20
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Tel. / Fax: ++32 (0)10/54.51.22
200 YEARS AGO
17 Prairial, An XII (6 June, 1804), the Comte de Lille (future Loius XVIII) protested
officially against the proclamation of the Empire.
20 Prairial, An XII (9 June, 1804), Napoleon wrote to Cambacérès, Archichancelier de
l'Empire, concerning the Pichegru (et al.) trial: "My Cousin, the judges retired to
deliberate at eight o'clock this morning." They spent nearly 24 hours in camera.
21 Prairial, An XII (10 June, 1804), Georges Cadoudal, Armand de Polignac and 18 others were
sentenced to death. Moreau and Jules de Polignac got off with 2 years in prison: a sentence
which infuriated Napoleon - he thought the penalty too feeble for a man who had been found
guilty... and he had been hoping to pardon Moreau in a final gesture of grandeur and
magnanimity. In the end it was Armand de Polignac who was pardoned: "I was unable to remain
unmoved by the anguish of Madame Armand de Polignac. What is more, I remembered that I had
been close to this man, at school, early in my youth [...]." Letter to the Minister of
Justice, Régnier, 22 Prairial.
150 YEARS AGO
10 June, 1854, a law was passed to facilitate the drainage of France's marshy areas, such as
Les Landes and La Sologne. This piece of legislation shows Napoleon III's increasing
interest in land management: in 1857, another new law was passed governing the further
protection of the environment in the region called the Landes de Gascogne, notably the
systematic afforestation of the area with pines in order to 'stabilise' the sandy soil.
10 February, 1854, saw the creation of the "Société Nationale d'Acclimatation" (a sort of
French national botanical and zoological society), which was later to call itself the
"Société Nationale de Protection de la Nature" (National Society for the Protection of
Nature).
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week!
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
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THIS WEEK:
What's on
- Exhibition: Napoleon and Poland
- Festival: 1st Open-Air Napoleonic Film Festival, Saint-Cloud
- Exhibition: 'The instant recaptured': Luigi Primoli's photographs of India
- Commemoration: Ligny 2004
- Anniversary: Crimean War, in Santena (Italy)
- Exhibition: Napoleon. The Sacre, at the Musée Fesch, Ajaccio
- Exhibition: Napoleon and the sea, a dream of Empire, Paris
- Exhibition: Napoleon and the Jouy Cloth
The monthly titles
- This month's book: The Saint-Napoleon: Celebrations of Sovereignty in Nineteenth-Century
France, by Sudhir Hazareesingh
- This month's painting: The Seine and Notre-Dame de Paris, by Johan Barthol Jongkind
- This month's article: The proclamation of Empire by the Sénat Conservateur, by Thierry
Lentz
- In the Collectors Corner, Clock: "Diogenes looking for a man", by Claude Galle (1759-1815)
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