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Eye of Josephine
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
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Napoleon and Josephine. One of the greats love affairs throughout history. Josephine was a noted art collector. Napoleon once said the only thing that came between them were her debts. The Eye of Josephine is a collaboration between the Louvre and the High Museum of Art in Atlanta along with the concurrent exhibit The Louvre and the Ancient World. |
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The Eye of Josephine will include 60 masterworks formed from the Empress's collection of Greco-Roman and Egyptian antiquities that she had kept at Malmaison, which was her residence located on the outskirts of Paris. It was where she lived following her divorce from Napoleon in 1810. |
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In 1801, the King of Naples, Ferdinand IV (also called Ferdinand I King of the Two Sicilies), and his wife Marie Caroline (sister of Marie Antoinette) gifted the Prime Counsel, Napoleon Bonaparte and his wife Josephine, some antiquities that had been unearthed at Herculaneum and Pompeii as a peace offering. It was short-lived. In 1805 Ferdinand joined the Third Coalition against Napoleon. It was unsuccessful and France recaptured Naples forcing Ferdinand and his wife Marie Caroline to flee. |
Josephine died in 1814 and her collection was dispersed. The Louvre undertook the task of reuniting Josephine's antiquities in a Herculean effort spanning from 1819 to 1865. The exhibit features fragments of frescoes, bronzes, marbles, an extensive group of Greek vases and an Egyptian sculpture.
Eye of Josephine
High Museum of Art, Atlanta:
October 16, 2007– September 7, 2008