Napoléon - Noir

During the Consulate, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) understood the importance of disseminating his portrait to establish his authority over the French people. He became the principal architect of his own legend. All media were used, from sculpture to snuffboxes and fans. The multitude of objects bearing the Emperor's effigy or representing imperial symbols constituted an extraordinary means of propagating the Napoleonic legend. However, with the Restoration, the Bonapartists had to engage in an underground struggle, multiplying seditious objects. The Emperor's death in 1821, making him less dangerous in the eyes of the royalists, led to a resurgence in the production of images of the hero and his principal exploits. The Second Empire (1852) formalized the imperial legend through commissions for sculptures in public squares and paintings for museums. While the Second Empire took up official propaganda, the fall of the regime in 1870 put Napoleon's image to sleep for twenty years. It was not until the awakening of national sentiment in the 1890s that the image of the hero, which he had never ceased to be, reappeared. Size: 24 cm