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THIS WEEK IN THE BULLETIN
This week in the bulletin, we bring you the massive painting of Napoleon and Berthier currently on show at the Museo Napoleonico in Rome, Italy. Then there's the running order for the grand international conference on Napoleon III which we are organising for May this year. It's March, so it's the re-enactment at Valauris-Golfe Juan again. And then in ‘200 years ago', there's the French army gradually invading Spain and in ‘150 years ago' there's Napoleon III planting trees and liberalising the butcher's trade in Paris…
Enjoy!
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THIS MONTH'S PAINTING
General Bonaparte and his chief of staff, general Berthier, at the battle of Marengo by Robert Lefevre (1801)
The victory at Marengo was celebrated in many different works of art, both paintings and sculptures, some commissioned and giving the official propaganda, and others the personal initiative of artists with an eye to the main chance hoping to attract the favourable influence of the victor and new master of France. This huge painting here falls into that second category and was executed shortly after the battle on 14 June 1800. On completion it was exhibited by Joseph Boze in Amsterdam and London, with the artist claiming sole credit for the work.
© Fondation Napoléon
This work can be viewed at the exhibition Napoleone Fasto Imperiale. I Tesori della Fondation Napoléon, held at the Museo Napoleonico in Rome, 14 February to 25 May, 2008 and at the Museo nazionale delle Residenze napoleoniche on Elba, from 12 June to 12 September, 2008.
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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON NAPOLEON III
The complete program for the conference organised by the Napoleon Foundation in commemoration of the bicentenary of the birth of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte – the future Napoleon III –19 - 20 May, 2008, is now available on the website napoleon.org. The inscription details will be available at the beginning of March.
© Fondation Napoléon
See also 2008, Napoleon III year
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200 YEARS AGO
Spain
Now that several corps of the French army were established in the Iberian Peninsula (their presence being justified by the necessity of protecting the communication lines with the French army in Portugal), Napoleon began thinking seriously about the occupation of Spain. And indeed, Spanish officials began to be suspicious of these deployments. On 20th of February, 1808, Murat was appointed (by letter) lieutenant general to the army in Spain, and his role was to oversee the 2e corps de la Gironde (Moncey), the Division des Pyrénées occidentales (Merle), the Division des Pyrénées orientales (Duhesme), and the Détachement de la garde à pied et à cheval (Lepic). Murat was to leave Paris on reception of the appointment the same day, arriving in Bayonne accompanied by Exelmans four days later.
150 YEARS AGO
“Green” politics in Paris during the Second Empire
Emperor Napoleon III found that Paris lacked green space. At the beginning of the Second Empire, there were only three public gardens in Paris: the Luxembourg gardens, the Tuileries, and the Champs-Elysées. All the other green spaces were private and situated around Parisian town mansions. Napoleon III formulated two ‘green' directives: to create in each quartier small public gardens called ‘squares' and to plant trees along the new avenues and boulevards (in total 82,000 trees, with a preference for plane trees, chestnuts, elms and limes). The Moniteur Universel dated 23 February, 1858, reported that: ‘Twenty chestnut trees have now been planted, forming one of the two alleys decorating the entrance to the Paris Bourse. Even now, the intertwining branches of the fifty-year-old trees give an excellent impression of the veritable green archway which will grace the place next spring'.
Why not revisit our itinerary: Parks and gardens: Parisian strolls of the Second Empire
Liberalisation of French Butchery
It was one of the aims of the French government during the Second Empire to modernise France. Butchery was one of the trades to be liberalised. A decree was published, dated 24 February, 1858, putting an end to the corporalisation of the profession, and bringing butchery into the free market. Competition was introduced, quotas were abandoned, and opening times were liberalised, all with the purpose of bringing more butchers to the capital. In the period from 1850 to 1860, the number of Parisian butchers grew from 299 to 1,132.
If you read French, you can read the following PhD thesis on the liberalisation of butchery in France: Libéralisme et corporatisme chez les bouchers parisiens (1776-1944) by Sylvain Leteux (2005)
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 446, 22-28 February, 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
REMINDER
The new Bibliothèque Fondation Napoléon library times are: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 1 to 6pm, Thursday from 10am to 3pm.
During the French school holidays the library openings times are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, from 1-30 to 6pm.
THIS WEEK in the MAGAZINE
What's on
Lecture:
- The St-Helena Napoleon never knew, Cobourg, Ontario, Canada
Re-enactments
- Napoleon's arrival at Vallauris - Golfe Juan, France
Exhibitions:
- König Lustik!? Jérôme Bonaparte and the Model State: the Kingdom of Westphalia, Kassel, Germany
- Napoleon on the Nile, Staten Island, New York, USA
- The Eye of Josephine, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, United States
- Goya: the Disasters of War, Berkley Art Museum, University of California, USA
- Marquis de Lafayette, The New York Historical Society, NY, USA
- Chronicles of Riches: Treasures from the Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Canada
- La Rose Impériale: The Development of Modern Roses, Boone Gallery, The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA, USA
- "The trace of the eagle", the Invalides dome, Paris, France
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