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IN THIS WEEK'S LETTER
In the letter this week, we see Napoleon deified in our latest Painting of the Month. Produced by Ingres during the Second Empire, the painting hides nothing in its admiration for Napoleon and, by association, Napoleon III. Elsewhere, a new year brings two new exhibitions which open in France this week: one in Boulogne, which traces the life of Napoleon and the famous military camp installed there, and the second in Enghien, on the life of Mathilde Bonaparte, known as "Notre Dame des arts". Moreover, WH Smith Paris plays host to a talk on Clisson and Eugénie from Peter Hicks and Steven Englund, which will take place next week. And the New Year also sees new content on napoleon.org. As well as the new Digital Library, which we mentioned last week, we also have a new fashion file on the dye wars during the Second Empire. Finally, 200 years ago features some linguistic difficulties between the Napoleon and the American ambassador, whilst 150 years ago sees Napoleon III embrace free trade.
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PAINTING OF THE MONTH
The Apotheosis of Napoleon I, by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
After the coup d'état in 1851, Ingres, a partisan of the new government, made no effort to hide his support for Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. His admiration for the nephew of Napoleon I, and his support for the imperial regime saw him receive and accept a commission which was probably made through the Prince Napoleon. On 2 March, 1853, the painter, at this point seventy-three years old, agreed to a contract committing him to completing before the end of that same year the Apotheosis of Napoleon I, a monumental work that would adorn the ceiling of the Salon de l'Empereur in the Hôtel de Ville in Paris...
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NAPOLEON.ORG
Digital Library
As you will have noted from last week's letter, the Fondation Napoléon has just launched its bilingual Digital Library service, allowing any visitor to the website to investigate and leaf through a number of rare and interesting books and documents from the comfort of their own computer screen. Documents available for consultation include the Livre du Sacre, with its forty magnificent engravings (use the zoom function get up close to the images), and the Romances de la Reine Hortense. If St Helena is more your line, why not use full-text search to pick your way around Barry O'Meara's aplogia for his actions as Napoleon's doctor on the island? Enjoy!
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NAPOLEON.ORG
The dye wars of the Second Empire
Previous to 1857 all dyes used for the colouration of fabric were of organic origin; it was during this year that a Lyon firm perfected the process of applying a brilliant coloured lichen dye to cotton, which had not been previously successful. The shade was produced around the same time that a young William Perkin originated a chemical dye stuff that he termed ‘Mauveine'. The timing of these two innovations was key and while Perkin was certainly the first to originate a chemical dye, he found himself racing to secure a patent for his formula before it was seized by other chemists similarly engaged.
WHAT'S ON
Clisson and Eugenie at WH Smith, Paris
WH Smith and Gallic Books are hosting a talk with Peter Hicks, historian and international affairs manager at the Fondation Napoléon, and Steven Englund, historian, to mark the recent release of the English translation of Clisson and Eugénie. The event will take place on Thursday 21 January, 2010, at 7pm.
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"Mathilde Bonaparte: a princess on the shores of Lac d'Enghien"
For the first time in France, an exhibition entirely dedicated to Princess Mathilde Bonaparte (1820-1904), niece of Napoleon I and one of the great female figures of the Second Empire, is being organised, and will run from 15 January to 15 April, 2010. The exhibition takes place at the Centre Culturel François Villon in Enghien-les-Bains, which sits on the Lac d'Enghien, to the north of Paris.
"Discovering Napoleon at the Château Musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer"
The collection held at the Château Musée de Boulogne-sur-Mer contains (inter alia) around one hundred objects related to the Napoleonic period. This is not surprising since Boulogne played an important role during the history of the First Empire and Napoleon, since it was the site for the famous camp de Boulogne war preparations. This area, impregnated with history as it is, offers the visitor the chance to discover more about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as learn about the Napoleonic period in a wider sense. The exhibition, which also features items and objects loaned from other private and public collections, takes place between 16 January and 29 March, 2010.
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200 YEARS AGO
Communication breakdown
Franco-American relations during the Napoleonic period were fraught with difficulties as the British and French fought to either definitively pull America into their respective camps or otherwise curtail any business that the recently-formed country had with the enemy. American neutrality, up to 1812 and the declaration of war on the British, thus angered both countries. Napoleon's Continental System, imposed across French dominated Europe, meant that American ships destined for Europe carrying British cargo was seized, whilst Britain's own efforts to control American commerce resulted in increased tension between the newly affranchised country and its former masters. However, economics and politics were not the only sticking points when it came to the Franco-American relationship.
General John Armstrong, Jr served as the US minister to France between 1804 and 1810. Although not a completely untalented diplomat, his poor writing style in English and utter lack of French were much cause for grievance for both his President back home, Thomas Jefferson, and the French Emperor. The third American president was so put out by Armstrong, Jr's confusing prose that he once wrote to James Madison, noting that Armstrong, Jr. was incapable of giving "a naked fact in an intelligible form". Napoleon was equally critical of the General, and hid nothing of it in writing to Champagny on 19 January, 1810:
"Monsieur le Duc de Cadore, you must go and see the American minister. It is absolutely ridiculous that he write such incomprehensible things. I would prefer that he write in English, but at length and in a manner that we can understand, than for such important matters he write only four lines. [...] Send a coded dispatch to America by extraordinary courier: they must be left in no doubt that [their] government is not represented here; that the minister cannot speak French, [and] is a morose man with whom we cannot treat; that all these obstacles would be removed if we had an envoy here with whom we could speak. [...] Write to America in a manner that the President understands what an imbecile they have sent us." [Letter from Napoleon to Champagny dated 19 January, 1810, n° 16,147 Correspondance de Napoléon Ier, Second Empire edition, 2002 reissue]
150 YEARS AGO
Napoleon III and Market Forces
Viel-Castel in his Memoirs welcomed the sudden announcement of a Franco-British Free-Trade agreement. "Tuesday 17 January. A couple of days ago, a letter from the Emperor to the Minister of State [Achille Fould] was published on the front page of the Moniteur. It is exceedingly important in that it announces the abolition of customs payments on cotton, wool, iron etc. This is the first step towards free trade and an abandon of the protectionist system."
The negotiators on the British side were the famous Free Trader Richard Cobden and Lord Cowley, the British Ambassador in Paris. On the French side stood the academic Saint-Simonian and Professor of Economics at the Collège de France Michel Chevalier, the President of the Conseil d'état Jules Baroche, the Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works Minister Eugène Rouher and Achille Fould. It took them several months to hammer out a deal whereby trade barriers between France and Britain would be removed. In fact, the treaty reduced French duties on most British manufactured goods to levels not above 30% and reduced British duties on French wines and brandy. British exports to France more than doubled in the 1860s, whilst in France over the same period, exports quintupled in value (from 0.9 to 4.5 billion) and effective growth was more than 2.5 times the GNP. However, given widespread hostility to the scheme amongst French political and business elite, the talks were held in secret. A leak in the British paper Morning Post forced Napoleon III's hand, making him publish the results of the negotiations in haste.
The Cobden-Chevalier treaty signed on 23 January 1860 was (to quote Napoleon III's letter to Fould) founded on the "verity that in order to render commerce flourishing you have to multiply the means of exchange" and that "without competition industry remains stationary, perpetuates its high prices which prevents the growth in consumer buying."
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks & Hamish Davey Wright
Historians and web-editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N° 525, 15 – 21 January, 2010
Interested in the work of the Fondation Napoléon? Why not participate, either generally or in a specific project, by making a donation?
© 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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THE BIBLIOTHEQUE FONDATION NAPOLEON LIBRARY
Winter opening times:
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday: 1pm-6pm
Thursday: 10am-3pm
(Closed Friday)
FONDATION NAPOLEON ON THE WEB
Each week we offer you a "mystery" link to somewhere on napoleon.org. Click on the link to discover a part of the website you might not have visited before...
Statistic of the week:
The Fondation Napoléon's triumvirate of Napoleonic websites:
- Napoleon.org
- Napoleonica. La Revue
- Napoleonica. Archives Online
The best of the month:
- Book of the month
- Painting of the month
- Objet d'Art of the month
- Article of the month
SEEN ON THE WEB
- Bibliothèque nationale de France: "Photographers for the Emperor"
- Musée de l'histoire de France website: great works from the Consulate and Empire
EVENTS
On now
A selection of events taking place now or in the coming weeks, taken from our What's on listings.
Talks
- Clisson and Eugénie: a talk with Peter Hicks and Steven Englund, Paris (France), 21 January, 2010, 7pm
Exhibitions
- At the Russian Court: Palace and Protocol in the 19th Century, Amsterdam, Netherlands [20/06/2009 - 31/01/2010]
Full details
- Josephine's wine cellar: wine during the Empire at Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, France [18/11/2009 - 08/03/2010]
Full details
- "Under Napoleon's Eagle", Ljubljana, Slovenia [15/10/2009 - 25/04/2010]
Full details
And finishing soon...
Exhibitions
- A la table de l'Impératrice Eugénie, le service de la bouche dans les palais impériaux, Compiègne, France [02/10/2009 - 18/01/2010]
Full details<<
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