1-2 NGV: Napoleon: Revolution to Empire

Robert LEFÈVRE. Empress Josephine with a Herbarium on the table beside her, 1805

Below is the painting by Jean-Baptiste ISABEY (after) Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul, in the gardens of Malmaison, 1804. Napoleon, the great general, was said to have been a bad billiards player, a poor horseman and a terrible shot. Napoleon wore a packet of poison on a cord around his neck. When he finally went to use it in 1814, it had lost its potency and only succeeded in making him violently ill.

How handsome Napoleon is on the below portrait by Antoine-Jean GROS, 1796. This dashing portrait of a youthful Napoleon depicts him mid-battle, during one of his first campaigns against Austrian forces. Urging his army forward, he heroically crosses the bridge of Arcole. In reality, Napoleon was unable to capture the enemy guns during this episode; rather he rallied his troops by climbing ten metre-high embankments to gain victory. This painting accentuates Napoleon’s ability and glorifies his power rather than capturing the reality of war.

Josephine bought up to 900 dresses a year (compared to Marie-Antoinette’s 170) and 1000 pairs of gloves. As well as displaying the splendour of the Empire, Josephine’s extravagance helped to maintain the fashion and textile industries affected by the Continental Blockade.

Napoleon was known to deliberately spoil the women’s clothing of which he did not approve by spilling food or ink on the clothing item to render it unwearable. One reason for his extreme actions may have been his desire to support the local textile industry and discourage the wearing of British cloth and fashion. Under the Code Napoléon, Napoleon restricted the rights gained by women during the Revolution to divorce by mutual consent. Fathers were given back the right to have wayward children imprisoned. The right of women to handle money was severely restricted unless they were registered traders. As First Consul, Napoleon instituted a number of lasting reforms: centralised administration of government, a higher education system, a central bank, law codes and a road and sewer system, many of which are still in place today.

Habits and Idiosyncrasies: Napoleon always insisted on having a fire lit and loved extremely hot baths. One reason for this was that they provided him relief from his painful haemorrhoids. Napoleon was said to have had an intense dislike of cats, but adopted one during his exile on Saint Helena. Napoleon was said to have had an acute sense of smell. Napoleon was said to have had a horror of open doors. People entering were required to squeeze through a just-adequate opening and then shut the door immediately behind them. Napoleon ate his meals quickly and in silence – a meal rarely lasted longer than twenty minutes. His favourite meal was roast chicken with fried potatoes and onions. Napoleon was a workaholic who would sleep for only three or four hours a night.

Napoleon was often described as being short in stature. In actual fact, the height of five foot two recorded on his death was in French units, which were equivalent in today’s measurement to five foot, six and a half inches or 169 centimetres – an average height. Napoleon liked to surround himself with the unusually tall soldiers of the Elite guard, who would have made him look short in comparison.

Bust of the Empress Josephine by BOSIO, 1809

Charles PERCIER (after) (designer). Gondola armchair from Madame Bonaparte’s boudoir at Saint-Cloud Palace