Discover a unique panorama of 400 art works and objects most of which have never been shown in North America and get a new perspective on this historical figure.

Organized and circulated by the MMFA, with the participation of Château de Fontainebleau and the exceptional support from the Mobilier national de France, this exhibition recreates the sumptuous ambience of Napoleon’s court from his coronation in 1804 to his exile in 1815. The exhibition brings together over 400 art works and objects, most of which have never been shown in North America. They are featured here thanks to some 50 distinguished lenders, including such institutions as the Louvre, the Château de Fontainebleau, the Mobilier national de France, the Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et de Bois-Préau, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

You are invited to visit the six departments that made up the “Imperial Household”. The institution, with its 3,500 employees, was responsible for the daily lives and ceremonies of Napoleon and his family, and crafted his image as Emperor and as a “modern hero.” Its team of dignitaries, officers and artists in his service had a mission: to establish the decorum of a regime that would assert the legitimacy of the Bonaparte dynasty at the head of France, just a few years after the Revolution and the abolition of the Bourbon kings. An innovative layout re-creates the splendour of the apartments by incorporating mapping projections.

A unique occasion to discover paintings, sculptures, furniture, silverware and porcelain, tapestries, silk hangings and court dress illustrating the opulence characteristic of the Empire style displayed to serve the spectacle of power.