The Empress Eugénie in England: Art, Architecture, Collecting Professor Anthony Geraghty, History of Art

Event details

History of Art Research Seminar

In this first research seminar of the autumn term 2022, Professor Anthony Geraghty will discuss his new book The Empress Eugénie in England: Art, Architecture, Collecting (London: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2022). The publication analyses the principal buildings of the Farnborough Hill estate, which was purchased in 1880 by the Empress Eugénie, the wife of Napoleon III and the last Empress-Consort of France. Her move to Farnborough followed 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, Eugénie resolved to create a permanent monument to her husband and son. This book describes the little-known assemblage of art and architecture that she created there in the 1880s. Professor Geraghty will discuss both the buildings and the collections they housed in this presentation of the book, as well as talking through the process of researching and writing this volume which represents a new field of research for the author.

All welcome.