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THIS WEEK IN THE BULLETIN
We bring you the beautiful wedding gift which the young general gave to his beautiful creole in March 1795. Next, we encourage you to have look at an article in Napoleonica La Revue, our online journal. This week we're highlighting Elodie Lerner's fascinating article on the painter Gérard and his ‘fine' career. Then there's news of the celebrations in the Vosges region of France for the 150th anniversary of Napoleon III and Cavour's secret meeting in Plombières-les-Bains which led to the unification of Italy and the attachment of Nice and Savoy to France. Seventy years ago this week saw the creation of the Souvenir Napoléonien. We bring you news of the celebrations. In ‘200 years ago', there's an account of British naval involvement in the insurrection in Spain, and in ‘150 years ago' you can read about the painter Ary Scheffer and view his rendition of Napoleon dictating to Las Cases on St Helena.
Enjoy!
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THIS MONTH'S OBJECT
Josephine's 'corbeille de mariage' or wedding basket
This fine object is one of the few left which relates directly to Napoleon and Josephin's marriage “made in haste”: the bans were published less than four months after the couple's first meeting in the Autumn of 1795! Whilst Napoleon was madly in love with the beautiful creole, she also embodied for him access to the upper echelons of the Directorial government. As for Josephine, the union was for her much more one of reason – the young general represented for her an insurance policy for the future and support for the education of her two children, Eugène and Hortense. Follow the link to read all about it.
© Château de Malmaison
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NAPOLEONICA.LA REVUE
The first issue of Napoleonica.La Revue, the Fondation Napoléon's e-journal has a fascinating article on the painter François Gérard (1770-1837) and his fine career (in French) written by the art historian, Dr Elodie LERNER, independent scholar. You can either pay 7 euros to read this detailed article or you can sign up for the year for 60 euros.
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THE SOUVENIR NAPOLEONIEN IS SEVENTY YEARS OLD
The Association du Souvenir Napoléonien was founded in Nice in 1938 by Madame Eugénie Gal, and it celebrated its seventieth birthday there on Sunday last week. Several events were organised for the occasion, and members of the association came from all the delegations. A plaque was unveiled on the house where Madame Gal used to live, and members of the Souvenir Napoléonien and president Ronald Zins's invited guests were received at the Musée Masséna by the member of parliament and mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi. The celebrations ended with a gala dinner at the Hôtel Negresco.
200 YEARS AGO
On 25 June, 1808, Napoleon in Bayonne wrote to Marshal Bessières, commandant of the Garde impériale (then in Burgos), asking him to give the order for a deputation of twenty of the key figures of the province of Santander to be sent to Bayonne. The fortified coastal town of Santander had been taken by Bessières' major general, Merle, on 23 June. Napoleon interestingly refers in the letter to British losses in the taking of the city – “The British must have lost many men since four of their frigates were seen taking on many wounded men”. (Correspondance n°14132) Britain had in fact already begun assisting the Spanish war effort. On 12 June, the British Foreign Secretary, George Canning, wrote to the deputation of Asturian politicians who had come seeking an alliance with Britain, promising them that everything would be done to help them. As a result, Admiral Gambier, commander of British vessels off the north coast of Spain, was asked to give the order for two frigates to patrol the Spanish coast from Bayonne to Cape Peñas. The aim was to impede the delivery by sea of French supplies and to provide all reasonable aid to the insurgents. Three days before Merle took Santander, the British ship's captain, Atkins, of the ship Seine (32 guns) was anchored in the Bay of Santander. And he was to announce the change in British relations with Spain to delighted Spanish officers (they had come out to the ship in the bay). After his meeting with the Spanish, Atkins reported home that there were 20,000 men in the region ready to fight the French but that 5,000 of them had no arms and that in general they lacked ammunition and funds. Notwithstanding their large numbers, the locals capitulated before Merle on 23 June. However, just before the French took the city, landing parties from two British vessels (the 22-gun Cossack and 18-gun Comet) spiked all the guns in the two forts defending the port of Santander and blew up the magazine and its 500 barrels of powder.
150 YEARS AGO
Art
On 15 June, 1858, the Romantic painter Ary Scheffer died. The state acquired his Paris atelier, and this site is today the Musée de la Vie romantique.
Early in his career (late 1820s), Scheffer was successful in every painting genre (current affairs, history, literature, religious, portrait), indeed so much so that he became drawing master to Louis-Philippe's children. And his links to the July Monarchy meant that he would never rally to Napoleon III. He remained a fervent liberal, and up until his death in 1858 was an important figure for the French Romantic movement.
Despite his detached relationship with the Second Empire, he did leave behind him a painting of the Napoleonic legend, namely, a small work representing Napoleon I dictating his memoirs to Las Cases.
Wishing you an excellent, Napoleonic, week.
Peter Hicks
Historian and Web editor
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, No 463, 20 - 27 June, 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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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
Re-enactments
- Medina de Rioseco , Spain
- Waterloo 1815 - 10th Napoleonic Bivouacs, Waterloo, Belgium
- Valencia: International Battle Re-enactment, Spain
Conferences
- Napoleonic Association 2008, London, UK
Exhibitions
- Napoleone Fasto imperiale. I Tesori della Fondation Napoléon, Rome, Italy
- Napoleon and the Marches, 1797-1814, Italy
- Goya in Times of War, Madrid, Spain
- Coinage at War. Catalonia in Napoleonic Europe, National Art Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona
- Treasures of Napoleon, New Orleans, USA
- Napoleon III, der Kaiser vom Bodensee (The Emperor from Lake Constance), Arenenberg, Switzerland
- Napoleon – genius and tyrant, Namur, Belgium
- Napoléon. Symboles des pouvoirs sous l'Empire (Symbols of Power: Napoleon and the Art of the Empire Style, 1800–1815), Paris, France
- Gustave Courbet, Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA
- König Lustik!? Jérôme Bonaparte and the Model State: the Kingdom of Westphalia, Kassel, Germany
- The Eye of Josephine, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, United States
- "The trace of the eagle ", the Invalides dome, Paris, France
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