Napoleon: Revolution to Empire
July 2012
“Our region was originally named Terre Napoléon,” explains a tour guide at the National Gallery of Victoria. “It means Napoleon Land, and includes modern day Victoria and South Australia… and that’s only part of our connection to France and the great Napoleonic Era.” The small group of people gathered seem transfixed, and it is this level of interest the National Gallery of Victoria is endeavouring to inspire with its latest Melbourne Winter Masterpieces exhibition, Napoleon: Revolution to Empire.
A title that evokes the great historic arc of change and transformation – from the end of Louis XV’s reign and the rule of Louis XVI, through to the French Revolution, the Reign of Terror, the Empire itself and Napoleon’s exile and death in St Helena – it is an exhibition where war and betrayal, victory and defeat, propaganda and community unrest is set against the emergence of the modern era.
With almost 300 works – including a remarkable selection of objects from the private lives of Napoleon and Joséphine – this is an exhibition that connects art, cartography, design and militaria with the cultural, political and historic milieu of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. At its centre are the lives and passions of Napoleon and Joséphine: their unusual relationship, the glamour and privilege of their station, their love of art, culture and design, and their affection for Chateau de Malmaison, their preferred residence.
Using video and installation, several rooms within the gallery space are transformed to recreate sections of Malmaison’s rich interiors. Each reflects the grandeur of the Empire style: exquisitely designed and carrying a rich, visual aesthetic without “meaningless ornament”. There are sumptuous wallpapers, and superb examples of gilded satinwood and mahogany furniture. There is also an impressive array of personal luxury items – from elaborate collections of grooming and service pieces to jewellery and fashion. Of particular interest is the stunning collection of pieces from Napoleon’s Coronation in 1804. Housed in a large gallery room with royal blue walls, one can see the scores of music (once thought lost) and hear a recording (made in 1995) of the music played in Notre Dame Cathedral on December 2, 1804. Its effect is stunning as the eye moves across an original court dress and train (made from velvet, satin and gold-embroidered silk tulle) or studies the intricate pen and ink drawings depicting the pomp and ceremony of the day.
There are also many artworks – in particular oil paintings and sculpture – that not only reflect the rising popularity of neo-classicism, but also offer surprising connections to the many objects that filled Napoleon’s and Joséphine’s lives. Highlights include the various examples of Napoleon’s image over the course of his reign – always stoic, powerful and seemingly steadfast. Two favourite paintings by the great Jacques-Louis David (Napoleon’s official painter) also feature: The death of Marat (1793) “balancing intense realism and religious symbolism” and the iconic – and highly romanticised – Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul, Crossing the Alps at Great St Bernard Pass, 20 May 1800 (1803).
Yet it is a collection of drawings and maps from explorations of Australia – led by French explorer, cartographer and naturalist, Nicolas Baudin, in the early 1800s – that seems to resonate most with local audiences. Indeed, it is Napoleon’s and Joséphine’s “fascination with Australia” as curators Ted Gott and Karine Huguenaud attest, that is the main reason for this exhibition, the first of its kind to be held in Victoria.
Write Gott and Huguenaud: “Thanks to the Baudin expedition that Napoleon sent to southern Australia in 1800, Joséphine received some 200 living Australian plants, as well as settling at Malmaison the kangaroos, emus and black swans that had somehow miraculously survived the arduous return voyage from Terre Napoléon.”
It’s true, literally Australia at Malmaison with Joséphine’s passion for natural sciences transforming the grounds of the residence into a wonderland of exotic flora and fauna. At one stage, it held three kangaroos, five black swans and three emus thanks to Baudin’s expedition and numerous exchanges and gifts from French institutions and nobility. Furthermore, it is believed that Joséphine cultivated almost all of the 24 (of the then known) species of eucalypt but even more impressively, she developed the most important collection of Australian plants in Europe in the early 19th century.
In 1785, Napoleone de Bonaparte was a 16-year-old Corsican artillery student fascinated by an expedition planned by Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse to circumnavigate the Pacific for the ‘benefit of knowledge and French trade’. The young Bonaparte did not volunteer for the expedition (but possibly expressed interest) and instead graduated from military college (in one year instead of two) and was made a lieutenant in France’s Royal Artillery. Tragically, the La Pérouse expedition disappeared (due to shipwreck) after exploring eastern Australia from January to March 1788. In 1797, a year after Napoleon married Joséphine de Beauharnais, details of the La Pérouse expeditions were published, the map of Australia complete apart from present day Victoria and South Australia.
In 1799, returning from Egypt, Napoleon seized power in a coup d’état and became Premier Consul. A year later, while he was reorganising the country’s economic, judicial and educational systems, Napoleon approved the Institute de France and Nicolas Baudin’s mission to explore the then unknown south-east coast of Australia and collect ‘natural history specimens’, establish an outpost for French trade, and, for the first time, observe the Indigenous peoples.
One senses the excitement with which he and others viewed the exoticism and mysteries of Australia and this is aptly reflected by the collection of rare books exhibited from the Baudin explorations (1800-1804). There are also maps – one featuring Terre Napoléon and the other depicting Port Jackson (Sydney) – and six beautifully wrought sketches of Australia’s Indigenous people. Variously titled ‘woman, child and man of New Holland’, these are surely some of the most startling portraits from Australia’s early history. Each is a tribute to the skill and observational powers of the artist, Nicholas-Martin Petit, a Parisian who studied drawing at the studio of Jacques-Louis David. One cannot help but marvel at the trust that must have existed between the observer and the observed.
Near this selection of images are two line drawings: Kangaroo and God of the Blue Mountains. It is not known whether these images were made by Indigenous people (who may have been given a pencil by the Baudin expedition) or copies of rock drawings made by French artists. If the former is true, these are the earliest recorded Indigenous drawings on paper.
While it does not feature many of Napoleon’s most notable battles (such as Trafalgar, Austerlitz and Wagram), and barely references Waterloo (or Wellington), such is the grandeur of this exhibition that it does indeed offer a profound insight into the nature of civilisation: the systems of power, the role of the individual, the art that comforts (or deceives), and the continuing conflict between systems of thought and belief.
Important also is the way in which we view history and the fascinating power of the object. In an era where digital is replacing the tangible, it is Napoleon’s idea that “Greatness is nothing unless it be lasting” that suddenly seems to carry new meaning.
Napoleon: Revolution to Empire shows at the National Gallery of Victoria until October 7.
Images:
Charles THÉVENIN, French 1764–1838. The attack and capture of Ratisbon by Marshal Lannes, 23 April 1809 1810, oil on canvas, 183.0 x 257.0 cm. Versailles, Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (inv. MV 1740) © Photo RMN / Franck Raux.
Helmet, breastplate and backplate of a Rifle Officer 1810–15 iron, copper, hair, leather, Fondation Napoléon, Paris Acquisition 1998 (inv. 77) © Fondation Napoléon / Vincent Mercier
Other Articles You May Like
In Bob We Trust
In Bob We Trust follows the emotional journey of Father Bob’s eventual eviction from the place he called home for…
Radiance: The Neo-Impressionists
It was the American author, poet and philosopher, Henry David Thoreau who once said, “It’s not what you look at…
Jeff Sparrow
Activism matters
Weather
20°Latest Edition
