Napoleon III: the other Napoleon and his Empire - Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte

Magazine Antiques, Dec, 2002 by Christopher Forbes

The works illustrated here are among several hundred examples from the author's collection that will be on display in an exhibition entitled The Other Napoleon and His Empire, on view at the Forbes Galleries in New York City, from December 2 until March 31, 2003.

I would like to thank Bonnie S. Kirschstein for help both with the exhibition and with this article.

(1.) Alyn Brodsky, Imperial Charade: A Biography of Emperor Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie...(Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1978), p. 130.

(2.) F. A. Simpson, The Rise of Louis Napoleon (John Murray., London, 1909), p.27. The future Napoleon III's oldest brother, Napoleon Louis Charles, was born in Paris October 11, 1802 and died in The Hague on May 5, 1807; his second brother, Napoleon Louis, was born in Paris December 18, 1804 and died fighting for the unification of Italy in Forli on March 17, 1831.

(3.) Patrice Pierre, "Phibicite" in Dictionnaire du Second Empire, ed. Jean Tulard (Fayard, Paris. 1995), p. 1013.

(4.) Andre Castelot, La feerie imperiale (Librairie academique Perrin, 1962); S.C. Burchell, Imperial Masquerade: The Paris of Napoleon III (Atheneum, New York, 1971); Alyn Brodsky, Imperial Charade (see n. 1); John Bierman, Napoleon III and His Carnival Empire (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1988); Rupert Christiansen, Paris Babylon: The Story of the Paris Commune (Viking Penguin, New York, 1994).

(5.) Jean-Marie Moulin, "The Art of the Second Empire," The Magazine ANTIQUES, vol. 114, no.4 (October 1978), p. 776.

(6.) The letter, on Napoleon's embossed crowned letterhead, is in the author's collection. Inscribed on a label on the verso, "Napoleon III's surrender/at Sedan. The copy he/kept. Given by the Duc/de Persigy to the Miss/Jeromes. In return for/hospitality In London/1870-71. Miss Jerome be/came the mother of Mr./Winston Churchill." Another autograph version of Napoleon III's surrender letter is in a private collection in Paris.

(7.) Peter Vansittart, Hermes in Paris (Peter Owen Publishers, London, 2000), p. 181.

(8.) Jean-Marie Moulin. "The Second Empire: Art and Seciety" in The Second Empire Art in France under Napoleon III (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1978), p. 12.

(9.) Catalogue of Important Ancient and Modern Pictures and Drawings, sold by leave of the Court of Chancery by the Trustees of the Settlement made by Her Imperial Majesty, the late Empress Eugenie (Christie, Manson and Woods, London, July 1, 1927).

(10.) H. M. Queen Victoria, Leaves from a Journal/Being a Record of/The Visit of the Emperor and Empress/of the French to the Queen/and of/The Visit of the Queen and H. R. H. The Prince/Consort to the Emperor of the French, Printed strictly for Private Circulation (London, 1855), p. 94. The copy in the collection of the author is inscribed on the flyleaf, "To dear Arthur/from his dearest/Mother/VRI/Balmoral Sept.30 1881."

CHRISTOPHER FORBES is the vice-chairman of Forbes magazine.