The Statue of Napoleon I, Invalides

Overlooking the Cour d’Honneur at the Invalides is an imposing statue of Napoleon I (1769-1821).

In daylight or at night when he is lit up in all his glory, this dark figure looking over the honor courtyard strikes an impressive note. Like many French things, there is the story and then there is the backstory, this one is a doozy.

Louis-Philippe (the last French king) commissioned the sculptor Charles Émile Seurre to make this statue and it was to be installed at the top of the Vendôme column. It was inaugurated on July 28, 1833 in the presence of Louis-Philippe, for the 3rd anniversary of the 1830 revolution which brought him to the throne.

Napoleon III (Napoleon’s nephew) decided in 1863 that he didn’t want it there any longer and he replaced it with a more “dignified” statue, an imperial Napoleon draped in the antique style- basically… Napoleon in Caesar's toga.

Meanwhile, the first statue by Seurre was removed on November 4, 1863, and installed at a busy roundabout in the city of Courbevoie, which is a western suburb of Paris (now best known for the La Defense financial district).  At the fall of the Second Empire (1870), the statue was unbolted by Parisians, who believed a rumor that the Prussians were going to tie the statue up by the neck and drag it along the streets of Paris.

They wanted to move the statue to the Invalides to escape the Prussians in September 1870 and it was placed on a river barge to travel on the Seine from Courbevoie to Paris, but the 4-ton statue fell into the water! 

There is still a rumor floating around (no pun intended) that claims that the bronze head broke off from the body during the fall and that the current head is not the original.

The statue was fished out of the Seine and placed in the reserves of the Invalides. Restored, under the initiative of the Society of Friends of the Army Museum, it was installed in its current place at the Invalides on March 11, 1911.

It stands today opposite the entrance to the main courtyard of the Hôtel des Invalides, under an arcade on the first floor of the Galerie du Midi, above the door to the soldiers' church.

This sculpture represents one of the most famous images of Napoleon I, that of the "Little Corporal": dressed in his coat - often called the frock coat - wearing his famous hat - the bicorn hat - and his hand on his stomach (a position partly explained by Napoleon's stomach ulcer).

The bicorne or bicorn (two-cornered) is a historical form of hat widely adopted in the 1790s as a uniform item by Europe and the American army and naval officers. Most generals and staff officers of the Napoleonic period wore bicornes, which survived as widely-worn full-dress headdress until the 20th century. 

If you would like to see one of Napoleon’s actual hats you can visit the restaurant Le Procope in the  6th arrondissement of Paris. This is said to be the oldest restaurant in Paris, dating back to 1686. Rumor has it that in 1795, Napoleon, who was a member of the French army during the Revolution, was forced to leave his hat on as a guarantee to the restaurant owner that he would pay off his debt. This is also the restaurant where Benjamin Franklin sat and wrote part of the U.S. Constitution.

The Emperor is wearing one of his favorite uniforms, the Mounted Chasseurs of the Guard. On his chest, he is wearing the Legion of Honor as well as the badge of the Iron Crown, two distinctions created by him in 1802 and 1805. In his hand, a spyglass, an essential observation instrument on the battlefield. On his left side hangs a sword, which could be the one he carried in Austerlitz in 1805 (found in the Austrian Empire, which is modern-day Slavkov u Brna in the Czech Republic). Finally, at his feet, bombs and cannonballs recall his initial training as an artilleryman.

This representation of Napoleon is very consistent with what history has retained, is explained by the fact that the artist used the originals of certain objects (hat, frock coat, sword...), lent for the occasion by General Bertrand (1773-1844).

 The statue underwent a complete restoration between July 2014 and March 2015

And if you are interested in sculptures check out my article on my top 7 works from the Rodin Museum. It’s located right around the corner from the Invalides!

 The Invalides is open every day from 10 am-6 pm and Tuesday evenings they offer a late-night until 9 pm. 

https://www.musee-armee.fr/en/english-version.html