Jefferson, Napoleon, and the Louisiana Purchase - Museums Today

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), July, 2003 by Victoria Cooke

In 1802, the Spanish governor of the Louisiana Territory had suddenly revoked the Americans' right of free deposit, causing an uproar among those traders who depended upon this right. Jefferson wrote to Robert Livingston, then serving as minister to France, "... we must learn at once wether we can acquire N. Orleans or not," and sent future president James Monroe to assist in the negotiations. Livingston and Monroe were authorized to purchase the city of New Orleans, but Napoleon's representatives surprised the Americans by offering the entire Louisiana Territory, which was to be ceded back to France--the original owner who had surrendered its rights in the 18th century--by Spain in November, 1803, via the Treaty of San Ildefonso.

For Bonaparte, it was the sugar-producing Saint-Domingue, not Louisiana, that was the glittering colonial prize. In January, 1803, receiving word that his expedition to retake Saint-Domingue had failed so dramatically and with war against Great Britain looming, Bonaparte regarded the entire colony of Louisiana as lost. In April, French Treasury Minister Francois Marquis de Barbe-Marbois and American representatives agreed upon a price of $15,000,000 for approximately 827,987 square miles, about three to four cents an acre. The official ceremony transferring power from France to America was held at the Cabildo in New Orleans in December, less than one month after the French took possession of the colony from Spain.

In a painting commemorating the Louisiana Purchase, "A View of New Orleans from the Plantation of Marigny," the optimism for the future fortunes of both America and the territory of Louisiana are professed in a banner held aloft by an American eagle: "Under my wings everything prospers." The Louisiana Purchase was a peaceful exchange of land between two nations led by two very different men. At that moment in 1803, the determination of Jefferson to acquire the port of New Orleans coincided with Napoleon's decision to rid himself of France's colonial responsibilities for the Louisiana Territory, altering the course of American history and beginning fulfillment of Jefferson's dream for a nation which stretched from sea to sea.

The New Orleans Museum of Art is commemorating this historical event with "Jefferson's America & Napoleon's France: An Exhibition for the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial," which will be on view through Aug. 31. It includes more than 260 objects, including paintings, furniture, decorative arts, prints, drawings, and historical documents, among them the Louisiana Purchase documents signed by Jefferson and Napoleon.

The multifaceted exhibition uses the personas and tastes of Jefferson and Napoleon as its core. The differences between these two leaders are dramatically highlighted through the comparison of the sober, democratic Jefferson and the extravagant, autocratic Napoleon. Their contrasting styles are revealed in images of the leaders and their choices in decorative arts as well as the chairs they used while in office. Rembrandt Peale's portrait of Jefferson portrays the President in a simple dressing gown, with slightly unkempt hair. He also projected this simple, austere style in his use of a red-leather easy chair when he served as vice-president. A variety of personal objects, furniture, and decorative arts from Monticello are on display as well. Napoleon is represented by a range of objects, from portraits by David and Antonio Canova to grand-scale Salon paintings and gold snuff boxes, as well as his ornate throne.