B.

Empress Eugénie

Behind the scenes

The Gallery library has received a new book about the art collection of Empress Eugénie, wife of Emperor Napoléon III.

Empress Eugénie and the arts: politics and visual culture in the nineteenth century by Alison McQueen (Ashgate, 2011)

Empress Eugénie and the arts: politics and visual culture in the nineteenth century by Alison McQueen (Ashgate, 2011)

This is one of the library books we haven't had to pay for as we contributed a photograph of one of our own works to it. This is Henriette Browne's La lecture de la Bible:

Henriette Browne La Lecture de la Bible 1857. Oil on canvas. Collection Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū; presented by R E McDougall, 1930

Henriette Browne La Lecture de la Bible 1857. Oil on canvas. Collection Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū; presented by R E McDougall, 1930

The Empress assembled a very large art collection and, when her husband was deposed in 1870, they took much of it with them into exile in England. He died in 1873 but Eugénie lived another 47 years, dying in 1920. The final works from her collection were sold at Christie's in 1922 including, as reported in The Times, two works by Henriette Browne:

The Times, Saturday 28 January 1922, page 8

The Times, Saturday 28 January 1922, page 8

The painting was brought to New Zealand, bought by Robert McDougall who in turn gave it, as part of the foundation of the Gallery which bore his name, to the City of Christchurch.