It takes place under the patronage of Monsieur Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic and his Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.
Other destinies were played out in Napoleon's shadow: they crossed his, rallied to him, put up with him oropposed him. They are less well-known in France than Napoleon's, but no less fascinating. Two sovereigns from northern Europe, Bernadotte, the king of Sweden and Alexander I, tsar of all Russia, came up against the emperor's ambitions until his final fall. Although Bernardotte's incredible destiny was a direct result of his distinguished career during the Revolution and the Empire, Alexander followed the path marked out by his grandmother, Catherine the Great, and implemented a remarkably clear-sighted European policy.
Bernadotte was an ordinary soldier from Béarn, who rose to the highest ranks. Already Marshal of the Empire, he became Crown Prince of the Swedish throne by election in 1810. Bernadotte also owed much to his wife, Désirée Clary, Napoleon's sister-in-law and first fiancée. The Swedish now consider Bernadotte to be the father of modern Sweden. For Chateaubriand, Alexander I was: "the greatest historical figure in the Napoleonic period". He played a key role at the Congress of Vienna in constructing a new equilibrium in Europe.Alexander was instrumental in restoring Louis XVIII to the throne and, like Bernadotte, went to meet the French king at Compiègne.
Napoleon was a fascinating figure and, after him, the Empire style was a source of inspiration for art in Sweden and Russia. The power of imperial symbols carried by the decorative arts, a reflection of French crafts man ship, survived him and reached as far as the Ural mountains. So, alongside these three exceptional "sovereign destinies", this exhibition looks at the influence of the Empire style in Stockholm and St. Petersburg.
The exhibition opens with the emperor, the tsar and the king, incarnated in marble busts and a series of large portraits by Baron François Gérard –the Empire's official portraitist–alongside romantic paintings of their wives, Josephine and Désirée Clary. Costumes, miniatures, porcelain and gold work complete the ensemble.
Spanning the period from Tilsit (1807) to the Congress of Vienna(1815), the second part of the exhibition sets out the historical framework of the peaceful or military confrontations between the three men through emblematic works showing the sovereigns on campaign: uniforms, militaria, charts and books, furniture and travel kits... The meetings at Tilsit (1807) and Erfurt (1808) sealed the new Franco-Russian alliance and let the tsar take Finland, which was Swedish territory. But Napoleon took up arms again and embarked on the Utopian Russian campaign. It spilled over into Germany and made the invasion of France inevitable. When troops marched into Paris in March 1814, Napoleon was forced to abdicate. The episode of the Hundred Days eventually weakened France: the deposed Emperor was exiled to St Helena and Alexander I emerged triumphant.
The arts as symbols of power played a critical role in Napoleonic propaganda. The Empire style continued to spread through the northern European courts. Peace negotiations were inconceivable without an exchange of diplomatic presents, veritable power symbols among which Sèvres porcelain and gold work were the star pieces. The exhibition's partial reconstructions of Bernadotte's bedroom in the Château de Rosendal and Alexander I's studyin the Winter Palace testify to this fascination for the Empire style. A selection of furniture and luxurious objets d'art also shows how local craftsmen took inspiration from it while producing completely original creations such as hardstone vases.
Alexander's acquisition of Josephine's collection after her death in 1814 was a sign of the tsar's taste for the arts and a tribute to the Empress. But it was also a form of revenge on Napoleon. The presentation of several paintings from this collection invites visitors to go on to the château de Malmaison to see the second part of the exhibition, dedicated to Josephine, Sweden and Russia. It evokes Josephine's descendants, who married into the Romanov dynasty and the Swedish royal family, through family souvenirs and works from the Empress’s collection, including the extraordinary dessert service made by the Dihl and Guerhard porcelain manufactory for Josephine and her son, Eugene. The centrepiece is on display in France for the first time.
