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France in Russia. Empress Josephine's Malmaison
Collection France in Russia will offer the most complete account to date of the fascinating history of the Hermitage’s Malmaison collection. Malmaison was the county retreat of Empress Josephine, where she lived with her husband Napoleon Bonaparte. The chateau was decorated and furnished in the latest antique taste providing a luxurious setting for Josephine’s burgeoning art collection. Many of the works she collected were gifts from Napoleon which he had acquired during his various military campaigns in Europe. Following their divorce in 1810 and Napoleon’s military defeats in France and Russia over the following years, Tsar Alexander I befriended Josephine during several visits to Malmaison in 1814. After her death that same year, Alexander bought an important part of the Malmaison paintings and sculpture collection from Josephine’s heirs and shipped it to St Petersburg to be installed in the Winter Palace. This major purchase was both a potent symbol of Alexander’s victory over Napoleon in France and a gesture of admiration for Josephine, whom in both taste and personality reminded Alexander of his grandmother, Catherine the Great. Today the collection is divided between various departments of the State Hermitage Museum and this exhibition will be the first time the collection has been reconstituted since it left Malmaison in 1814. France in Russia is an exhibition about art and power, exploring the themes of Josephine’s role and taste as a collector during the Napoleonic wars and Alexander’s political and personal motivations for bringing part of Malmaison to Russia. Josephine’s Malmaison The large sum that Josephine paid in 1799 for Malmaison infuriated Napoleon. However, the chateau soon became his favorite residence and together they oversaw its complete refurbishment. Josephine commissioned two of France’s leading architects, Percier and Fontaine, to redesign the interiors, transforming them into the one of the finest expressions of the antique taste of the early 19th century. Here Josephine held court to lavish receptions and Napoleon planned his political and military affairs. Napoleon indulged Josephine’s passion as a collector by providing her with access to some of the finest art collections in Europe. His military campaigns were not solely territorial as Napoleon annexed the greatest art treasures of his enemies and sent them to Paris. Many of Josephine’s most significant pieces came to Malmaison from her husband’s conquests, including a significant group of paintings from the celebrated Kassel collection, assembled by Wilhelm VII, the 18th century ruler of the German principality Hesse-Kassel. As Napoleon’s forces were packing up the collection, the landgrave of Hesse-Kassel spirited away 48 of the finest paintings and hid them in a forester’s hut. However, Bonaparte’s General Lagrange soon discovered the rouse and had them shipped directly to Josephine at Malmaison. It was these paintings that Alexander would later purchase, including Rembrandt’s Descent from the Cross, now one of the highlights of the Hermitage collection. Josephine’s collection spanned a range of schools and periods with particular strengths in French and Dutch seventeenth century paintings such as Claude’s sublime set of landscapes, Morning, Noon, Evening and Night and Paulus Potter’s magnificent Wolf-Hound. Josephine also bought contemporary work for Malmaison including four beautiful marble sculptures by the most famous and renowned sculptor of the day, Antonio Canova which Alexander would later acquire for the Winter Palace. Alexander and Josephine Following Napoleon’s disastrous military campaign in Russia, Alexander I led Russian forces into France in 1814, further loosening the Emperor’s grip on power. Alexander visited Josephine at Malmaison and took sympathy upon her precarious situation, making arrangements which ensured her safety and that of her family as allied forces marched on Paris. As a token of her gratitude, Josephine presented Alexander with the famous Gonzaga Cameo which is one of the finest examples of its kind in the world. Shortly afterwards Josephine opened a ball at the chateau St Leu by dancing with Alexander and spent the evening walking the gardens with him in the cold night air. Five days later Josephine caught a chill and died. Alexander sent an aide-de-camp and a guard of honour from the Russian army to her funeral, a gesture which reputedly much annoyed the exiled Napoleon. Thanks to Alexander’s assistance, Malmaison was secured for Josephine’s heirs Hortense and Eugene de Beauharnais, although they faced 3 million francs of debt from Josephine’s estate. In 1815 Alexander alleviated some of the burden by arranging with the Beauharnais’ the sale of an important portion of Josephine’s collection, including the Kassel works and Canova sculptures. A private treaty was drawn up for 940,000 francs and the shipment left France bound for St Petersburg. The following year as part of the peace settlement in Europe, the international Allies agreed that works of art acquired by Napoleon should be returned to their original owners but when the agents for the landgrave of Hesse-Kassel reached Malmaison they were amazed that the collection had already been removed to Russia and out of their reach. The Exhibition By reconstituting a significant part of Alexander’s Malmaison collection, France in Russia offers the unique oppurtunity to trace the turbulent history of this remarkable collection and its role in the international power struggles of the Napoleonic era. It will consider the Francophile nature of Alexander’s cultural tastes and those of Russian court culture more widely. The exhibition will also include works from Malmaison collected after Alexander’s death by his son Nicholas I to show the ongoing fascination of the Tsars with Josephine and her collection. A further section of the exhibition will include design drawings for the decorative schemes that Josephine commissioned at Malmaison, to reveal the developent of the chateau’s remarkable interiors within which the paintings in the exhibition once hung. France in Russia will be accompanied by a fully illustrated colour catalogue which will present new research by curators at the Hermitage Museum and Courtauld Institute of Art. The project promises to make a considerable contribution to the study of eighteenth and nineteenth century art and culture as well as being of considerable public interest to a wide variety of audiences. |
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