Portrait bust of Napoléon III, Emperor of France (1808-1873)
after Count Alfred Émilien O'Hara van Nieuwerkerke (Paris 1811 - Gattaiola 1892)
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
1852
Materials
Plaster
Measurements
305 x 140 x 140 mm
Place of origin
Paris
Order this imageCollection
Mount Stewart, County Down
NT 1220126
Summary
Sculpture, plaster; the Emperor Napoléon III (1808-1873); Émilien de Nieuwerkerke (1811-1892); 1852. A plaster portrait bust of Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (1808-1873), who in 1852 became Emperor Napoleon III of France. The bust and its companion portrait of the Empress Eugénie were made by the Parisian founders Susse frères.
Full description
A portrait bust of Napoléon III, Emperor of France (1808-73, by Émilien de Nieuwerkerke (1811-1892), showing the sitter facing forward, with a handlebar and chin puff beard, on a plain bust section, mounted on an integral round socle. Signed on the left shoulder. Inset into the back is a gilded label with the name of the manufacturer, Susse frères. The pair to a bust of Napoléon’s consort, the Empress Eugénie (NT 1220137). The base is cracked, and chipped at the front. Cracks in both sides of neck. Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte was the son of the Emperor Napoléon I’s younger brother Louis Bonaparte, briefly king of Holland from 1806-1810, and of Hortense de Beauharnais, the only daughter of Napoleon's wife Joséphine by her first marriage to Alexandre de Beauharnais. After years spent mainly in exile, with sporadic unsuccessful attempts to seize power from the regime of king Louis-Philippe, Louis Napoléon took the opportunity of the 1848 revolution and the abdication of Louis-Philippe to return to France, where he was in due course elected as President of the Second Republic. When in 1851 he failed to change the constitution so he could serve further terms, Louis Napoléon instead seized power through a coup d’état. In 1853 he declared himself emperor, inaugurating the period known as the Second Empire, which lasted until 1870 and the defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian war. Napoleon III was a dynamic monarch who changed the face of France in many ways. He modernised the economy, expanded the railways and through his chief architect Baron Haussmann rebuilt much of his capital city Paris, transforming its appearance. Napoleon was active in foreign affairs, seeking to bolster France’s international standing. He fought the Crimean War between 1853-56, in alliance with Britain against Russia, and was instrumental in enabling Italian unification. The French overseas empire was significantly expanded during his reign. Napoleon’s greatest failure on the international stage, before his final catastrophic defeat against the Prussians at the battle of Sedan, was his attempt to install the Austrian archduke Maximilian as emperor of Mexico. After the collapse of the Second Empire, Napoleon III joined his wife Eugénie in exile in Britain. He is buried alongside her and their son the prince imperial in the mausoleum in Farnborough Abbey. The sculptor of the busts of Napoleon and Eugénie, Alfred Émilien O’Hara, comte de Nieuwerkerke, was an emblematic figure of the Second Empire and a close friend of the emperor and his wife. From a minor aristocratic family of Dutch origins, Nieuwerkerke was born and grew up in Paris and began to become known as a sculptor from the 1830s. He became the lover and companion of Princesse Mathilde Bonaparte (1820-1904), the cousin of Napoleon III, and thus quickly became a powerful figure in the circle of the Emperor’s advisers. He was appointed Napoleon’s Surintendent des Beaux-Arts (Director-General of the Fine Arts) and Director of the Musée du Louvre. Nieuwerkerke also fled France after the collapse of the Second Empire, coming first to England before settling in Italy. His extensive private collection of armour and works of art was bought by Sir Richard Wallace and today forms part of the Wallace Collection. The busts of Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie were made and published by the French sculpture foundry Susse frères, and were illustrated in the company’s 1860 catalogue, as available in casts in bronze or plaster. Portraits of the emperor were available depicting him in his official uniform or as a plain bust mounted on a socle, usually in the form of a herm, but also with a curving bust form, as in the version at Mount Stewart. The busts of the emperor were offered at two sizes, 60 and 35 cms. high. Whereas the small bronze busts of the emperor sold for 75 francs, the plaster versions were very much more inexpensive, just 8 francs. The circular bust form, also known in a bronze version, matched that of the busts of the Empress. The bronze busts, made in a much more durable material, depicted the emperor with his enormous handle bar moustache projecting out beyond the Emperor’s face, whereas wisely a more practical modest moustache was adopted for the plaster versions. Jeremy Warren April 2022
Provenance
On loan since 1976 to the National Trust from Lady Mairi Bury (1921-2009). Purchased in 2012 by the National Trust, from the Estate of Lady Mairi Bury.
Marks and inscriptions
Left shoulder, side:: Cte de Nieuwerkerke Back, lower left:: Suss On back, inset:: [S]USSE FRE[S] / EDITEURS
Makers and roles
after Count Alfred Émilien O'Hara van Nieuwerkerke (Paris 1811 - Gattaiola 1892), sculptor Susse Freres Bronze Foundry (founded 1758), founder
References
Cadet 1992: Pierre Cadet, Susse Frères. 150 Years of Sculpture, Paris 1992, pp. 128 and 151. Maison 2000: Françoise Maison, ed., Le comte de Nieuwerkerke. Art et pouvoir sous Napoléon III, exh. cat., Château de Compiègne, Paris 2000, pp. 169-70, nos. 117 and 118.