This absorbing book tells the story of Empress Eugenie (1826-1920),
the wife of Napoleon III and the last Empress-Consort of France.
Today she is remembered for her physical beauty, for her influence
as a taste maker and for her glittering contribution to the second
imperial court - but she outlived the Second Empire by half a
century and lived in exile in England. The Empress bought the
Farnborough Hill estate in 1880, following a decade of personal
tragedy: the collapse of the Second Empire (1852-70), the death of
Napoleon III, and the loss of her only child. The death of the
Prince Imperial in 1879, aged 23, ended all hope of a Bonapartist
restoration. With the imperial succession removed to another branch
of the family, Eugenie resolved to create a permanent monument to
her husband and son. This was her primary reason for moving to
Farnborough. This book describes the little-known assemblage of art
and architecture that she created there in the 1880s. Geraghty
analyses the principal buildings on the imperial estate:
Farnborough Hill itself, which was extensively remodelled for the
court-in-exile that Eugenie maintained there from 1880 to 1920; and
St Michael's Abbey, the spectacular domed mausoleum that the
Empress built on an adjacent hill in 1883-88. These projects were
entrusted to a French architect, Hippolyte Destailleur (1822-93),
whose erudite designs situated the history of the Second Empire
within the longer history of French architecture and design.
Geraghty also provides the fi rst detailed account of the lost
interiors of Farnborough Hill. He traces the origins of the
collection back to the Second Empire, and - drawing upon historic
photos, inventories, and sale catalogues - he shows how the
collection was displayed in the principal rooms of the house.
Primarily dynastic in purpose, the display included a major
sequence of Bonaparte family portraits, including works by David,
Gerard, Winterhalter, and Carpeaux. Eugenie also had an important
collection of decorative arts, including Gobelins tapestries,
Sevres porcelain, and royal French furniture. Composed by the
Empress herself, the display at Farnborough Hill was the last
manifestation of the 'Louis XVI-Imperatrice' mode of interior
decoration that she had popularised in the 1850s. It was also, in
its juxtaposition of modern and historic pieces, the final
expression of the nouvelle sociabilite of the second imperial
court. Finally, the book describes the breakup of the estate in
1927, when the house was sold to a convent school and the
collection was dispersed at auction. Today, only the Mausoleum
functions as Eugenie originally envisaged. Geraghty, however,
recovers the totality of Eugenie's vision for Farnborough. In so
doing, he describes how the Napoleonic ideal, for one final time,
was made visible through art, architecture, and collecting.
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