Print: Baxter - CL 227 "Vive L'Empereur!" Napoleon III AND CL 228 Eugene, Empress of the French
Baxter did two versions of Napoleon III one with a long Moustache, as this example, the other a shorter moustache. This reflected the changing style of the Emperor’s famous facial feature.
Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor in December, 1852, at the age of 44, and married Eugenie Montijo on January 30th, 1853, who was then aged 26.
The Emperor and Empress were in England in April, 1855, and he received the Order of the Garter.
After France returned to a Republic in 1870 they were exiled to England. Napoleon died in 1873 but Eugene lived on in Farnborough until 1920. More recently, she was back in the news when in 2019 Christies sold pieces of her Jewellery.
Courtney Lewis writes in 1926 “The Court, presided over by this pair, was brilliant, but was neither a model of morals in conversation and behaviour nor of decorousness in clothing, as the transparency of the latter was notorious: for instance, Princess Pauline Metternich, at a State ball at the Tuileries, in the presence of Napoleon III and the Empress, appeared with her hair hanging down her back and nude to the waist.”
Date: Circa 1854
Size (cm ht x w): 7.6 10.8 (each print)
State: Both on Stamped Mounts, over mounted in cream
Condition: Prints are in excellent condition, the mounts have been trimmed to fit the over mount, please see images. Light toning around SM from the over mount but completely covered when in place. The prints have been taken off the over mount to take full images but I will refit with acid free tape to secure which can easily be removed if a new over mount needs to be used as a template to cut a new over mount for framing