NAPOLEON
ART AND COURT LIFE IN THE IMPERIAL PALACE
Welcome to the Imperial
Palace
February 3 - May 6, 2018
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) presents a major
exhibition that re-creates the grandiose ambiance of Napoleon’s
court through the eyes of the Grand Officers and artists of the “Emperor’s
Household.” Over 400 art works and objects from the French palaces, most of
them never seen before in North America ,
reveal the essential role played by the Imperial Household during Napoleon’s
reign, from his coronation in 1804 to his exile in 1815.
Some fifty distinguished lenders have allowed MMFA to bring
to Montreal works from such institutions as the Louvre, the Château de
Fontainebleau, the Mobilier national, the Musée national des châteaux de
Malmaison et de Bois-Préau, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty
Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
The public will see the six departments that made
up the “Imperial Household”. The institution with its 3,500 employees was
responsible for the daily lives and ceremonies of Napoleon and his family. By
studying the leading figures of the court, the visitors will discover all the
luxury and prestige of palace life. In order to ally himself with the old
nobility and register his new dynasty as a continuation of the Ancien Régime,
Napoleon dreamed up an etiquette hedged about with strict regulations.
An innovative layout re-creates the splendour of the
apartments by incorporating mapping projections. Visitors will discover
paintings, sculptures, furniture, silverware and porcelain, tapestries, silk
hangings and court dress illustrating the opulence characteristic of the Empire
style displayed to serve the spectacle of power.
The exhibition is laid out according to the roles of the
leading figures in the service of the Imperial family, which helped to shape
the image of power. Grand Officers, chamberlains, equerries, master of
ceremonies, ladies-in-waiting, pages, artists and artisans were all involved in
composing the Imperial legend. Their origins, functions and everyday
responsibilities fashioned the Emperor’s life. The exhibition follows the
circuits of the courtiers as they moved through the living areas within the
palace, the public staterooms that were open to visitors and also the private
apartments strictly separated from the rest of the palace, where Napoleon shut
himself off to conduct the business of government.
As a new ruler, Napoleon Bonaparte seized power at the end
of the French Revolution. Transforming the Republic into a monarchy, he was
depicted by the court painters as a modern sovereign and hero. With a series of
portraits and historical scenes, the introductory gallery shows how artists
like François Gérard, Antoine-Jean Gros and Andrea Appiani had to conform to
precise requirements imposed by the Imperial administration in order to create
visual propaganda glorifying the head of state.
The MMFA Napoleon Collection
In addition to the items that arrived from other institutions, some twenty of the works
and objects presented in this exhibition are from the holdings of the MMFA.
Some come from the large collection of objects bequeathed to the Museum by the
collector and amateur historian Ben Weider: the recently restored Half-length
Portrait of Napoleon in Court Robes (about 1805- 1814), an oil on canvas from
the studio of François Gérard; one of Napoleon’s cocked hats worn during the
Russian campaign, about 1812; riding gloves and a shirt worn by the Emperor on
Saint Helena. Visitors will remark an outstanding pair of spindle vases in
Sèvres porcelain, Fire and Water (1806), acquired in 2017. Also from Sèvres, a
tea service presented to Cardinal Fesch, Grand Chaplain of the Imperial
Household. This collection also contains
a discovery, a sketch painted on canvas by Horace Vernet, Napoleon, on the Eve
of the Battle of Borodino, Presenting to His Staff Officers the Portrait of the
King of Rome Recently Painted by Gérard (1813).
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Click on images to enlarge them.
All photos in this article © Nadia Slejskova
Visit my previous article about a Napoleon exhibition here.
For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.
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