A loan agreement between the Fondation Napoléon and the Musée d’Orsay
The Fondation Napoléon is delighted to announce that it has deposited at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, one of the most imposing items from its collection, namely “Napoleon as Legislator” by the French sculptor Eugène Guillaume (1822-1905).
This long-term loan represents the continuity of a partnership between these two institutions already manifested on the occasion of the Musée d’Orsay’s 30th-anniversary exhibition, Spectacular Second Empire (27 September 2016 – 15 January 2017), in which this sculpture could be seen presiding over the room dedicated to the “Maison Pompéienne” built by Prince Napoléon (Jerome Napoleon Bonaparte, 1822-1891).
The Prince Napoleon (sometimes known as “Plon-Plon”) was Napoleon’s nephew, and during the Second Empire he commissioned this sculpture of Napoleon I as a Roman Emperor (amongst several other works) for the Pompeian-style villa on the Avenue Montaigne in Paris, inaugurated in February 1860 (demolished in 1891). The work was part of a decorative scheme inspired by a nostalgia for antiquity, and Napoleon is shown dressed in a Roman toga, crowned with laurels, whilst a sword hangs at his side. In his left hand he holds a stone tablet inscribed with the Napoleonic Code, and in the other he grasps a sceptre.
The plaster, which is half the size of the finished marble statue (now held at the Napoleon Museum in Arenenberg, Switzerland), is displayed in the magnificent nave of the Musée d’Orsay.
Photo album > Visit behind the scenes on the day the statue was installed in the nave at the Musée d’Orsay.
The history of this artwork on napoleon.org
January 2018
