NAPOLÉON Bust - 24cm

NAPOLEON Black Bust - 24 cm

Wax bust

During the Consulate, Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) knew that he had to be portrayed in order to impose himself to the French. He will be the main creator of his legend. All media are used, from sculpture to snuffboxes and fans. The multiplicity of objects bearing the effigy of the Emperor or representing the imperial symbols constituted an extraordinary means of propaganda for the Napoleonic legend. But with the Restoration, the Bonapartists had to start an underground fight, multiplying seditious objects. The death of the Emperor in 1821 made him less dangerous in the eyes of the royalists, and the production of the figure of the hero and his main feats of arms resumed with force. The Second Empire (1852) made the imperial legend official through commissions for sculptures for public squares or paintings for museums. Although the Second Empire took over the official propaganda, the fall of the regime in 1870 put the image of Napoleon to rest for twenty years. It was not until the awakening of national sentiment in the 1890s that the image of the hero that he has been ever since reappeared.

In collaboration with the Rmn - Grand Palais molding workshop.