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THE NAPOLEON.ORG TEAM WISHES YOU A VERY HAPPY 2008
THIS WEEK'S BULLETIN
In this week's letter we encourage you to learn French and to read Napoleon's correspondence as he dictated it. Then there's a backward glance at 2007 before looking forward to Napoleon III year. In “200 years ago” there's the French occupation of Portugal, David's famous painting of Napoleon's coronation, and the appointment of Bigot de Préameneu as Minister of Religion. In “150 years ago”, there are two imperial appointments and the death of the famous actress Rachel. Enjoy…
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THIS MONTH'S BOOK
NAPOLEON I, Correspondance générale de Napoléon Bonaparte: volume 4, Ruptures et fondations (Breaking with the past and laying the foundations of the future), 1803-1804.
This fourth volume of the Correspondance générale covers the years 1803 - 1804. The title of the volume ‘Ruptures et fondations' (Breaking with the past and laying the foundations of the future) sums up the content. There is the breakdown of the Peace of Amiens and the foundation and organisation of the Boulogne invasion camps, but there is also the ‘monarchisation' of the Republic and the establishment of the Empire, ending with the coronation of Napoleon as first ‘Emperor of the French'.
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1807-2007 ON NAPOLEON.ORG
How better to prepare 1808-2008 than to review the events of 1807-2007? Eylau, Friedland, and Tilsit …
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NAPOLEON III EVENTS
- On 9 January, 2008, the anniversary mass for the death of Napoleon III will be held in the Parisian church of Saint-Augustin, organised by the Souvenir Napoléonien. The mass begins at 6pm, doors closing at 5-45pm. Père Escudier will be officiating. (Paris 8e, metro Saint Augustin).
In January 1873, funeral masses for the emperor were held simultaneously in Saint-Augustin, Paris, France, and in the parish church in Chislehurst, UK.
The Souvenir Napoléonien decided on 2 December 2007 to commemorate the 9 January on an equal footing with the 5 May and 2 December commemorations of Napoleon I.
- Honour to Napoleon III in Vienna: The Vienna Philharmonic's New Year's Day concert for 2008 included a section in homage to the French emperor. The orchestra played several pieces dating from the Second Empire (including the Marche de Napoléon written to commemorate the Crimean War) in commemoration of the bicentenary of the birth of Napoleon III.
PhD Viva
Irène PERRET, who won a Fondation Napoléon research grant in 2005, successfully defended her thesis on Friday 30 November, 2007. She received the accolade « très honorable à l'unanimité du jury », in short « summa cum laude » for her thesis: Critique d'art sous le consulat et le Ier Empire (1799-1815). The Fondation Napoléon sends its congratulations.
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IN PICTURES > THE EMPRESS EUGENIE
Get in the mood for 2008 as Second Empire year by visiting our gallery and typing « Eugénie » in the search box. You will find forty-six images related to the empress and her reign.
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200 YEARS AGO Portugal
On 4 January, 1808, Napoleon sent to General Clarke new instructions for General Junot: «Write to General Junot and tell him to expect that, as soon as the weather improves, the British will make the greatest efforts to encourage all sorts of disorder in the country. He must therefore waste no time in setting up a provisional government, in sending Portuguese troops to France and in arming the forts in Lisbon […]; he only has January and February to do this and to bring the country effectively under his control […] » (Correspondance n°13429)
Fine arts
On 4 January 1808, Jacques Louis David presented to Napoleon and Josephine the final version of his painting of the coronation. According to the Moniteur dated 16 January, the imperial couple was accompanied by «several ladies in waiting, Marshal Bessières, Monsieur Lebrun, one of the emperor's ADCs, some chamberlains and pages». Napoleon is said to have cried out: «How majestic! How real everything looks! This is beautiful! This is so true to life! This is not a painting; you walk in through this picture».
Minister for Religion
The councillor of state, Bigot de Préameneu (1747-1825), was sworn in as Minister of Religion on 6 January, 1808.
Read Napoleon's correspondence with Bigot de Préameneu on Napoleonica.org.
150 YEARS AGO
Elections and appointments
- Monsieur the Count Louis de Cambacérès (son of Napoléon Etienne Armand Comte de Cambacérès and Bathilde Bonaparte) was elected to the Corps Législatif on 5 January, 1858, as member for the 2nd circonscription (constituency) of the Aisne département. He polled 19,946 of the 20,097 votes cast. (Le Moniteur Universel, 6 January, 1858)
- Monsieur Charles Sainte-Claire Deville was appointed by decree to the Académie des Sciences de l'Institut impériale de France on 5 January, 1858, as a replacement for the recently deceased Monsieur Dufrénoy (Le Moniteur Universel, 9 January, 1858). Deville was born in 1818 and was one of the founders (along with Victor Duruy, Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard) of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes. Deville was an important chemical scientist and was renowned for his discovery of the composition of drinking water and for his work on aluminium.
Theatre
The great tragedienne, Rachel, passed away on 3 January, 1858. She was buried 9 days later in the Père Lachaise cemetery in the section reserved for Jews.
She was born on 28 February, 1821, and she made her debut in Horace at the Comédie Française on 12 June, 1838, in the role of Camille. She became a permanent member of that theatre in 1842 and made her epoch-making performance there of Phèdre in Racine's play of the same name. On 3 November, 1844, she gave birth to a son, Alexandre Antoine, illegitimate son of Alexandre Walewski (himself illegitimate son of Napoléon I).
On 11 January, 1858, a long obituary by Théophile Gauthier was published in Moniteur universel: «Never has an actress given such a complete representation of human passion and tragedy […]. She was simple, beautiful, majestic, masculin. She was Greek art expressed through the medium of French tragedy.»
See also our file on the painting of Rachel in the role of Camille by Edouard Dubufe.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 439, 4-10 January, 2008
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© 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.
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Got a problem with a link in the Bulletin? Go to the homepage: http://www.napoleon.org
THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
Exhibitions:
- Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800-1815, Boston, USA
- Brilliant Europe - Jewels from the European courts, Brussels, Belgium
- Indispensable nécessaires, Reuil-Malmaisons, France
- Gustave Courbet's works, Grand Palais, Paris, France
- "The trace of the eagle", the Invalides dome, Paris, France
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