Yesterday, I went to see the Napoleon
exhibition at the National Gallery. While I wasn’t looking forward to it as
much as I have looked forward to the Winter Masterpieces in previous years, it
was such a great exhibition! I particularly liked the drawings from the early
Australian explorations. I’ve always found early colonial drawings very
interesting. The exhibition focused on the early French connections with
Australia, which is not something that I had previously known a lot about. I also loved the botanical drawings from Malmaison - Josephine's garden in which she cultivated a lot of Australian plants and kept a lot of Australian animals.
I really loved the historical aspect of the
exhibition. It follows somewhat of a chronological order. The first room
focuses mainly on the Ancien Régime. The
exhibition then documents some of the French Revolution, moving on to
Napoleon’s reign. I love the fact that it is not only art that is being
displayed, but also a lot of other interesting items such as military uniforms,
guns, furniture, crockery and clothing.
The exhibition is on at the NGV for a few more weeks. I’d definitely recommend checking it out!
