France in Russia : Empress Josephine's Malmaison Collection

Good exhibition at the Heritage Rooms looking at works of art and objects from Napoleon and Josephine's country retreat at Malmaison brought together for the first time since their dispersal in 1815.

The displays focused on how the works were collected, by fair means and foul, and how such a large number of items found their way into Russian collections.

The highlights for me were the paintings which included a St Sebastian by Ribera and Claude Lorrain's "Landscape with Tobias and the Angel". There was also a wonderful Canova sculpture of a dancer in a diaphanous dress. It was also good that the works were shown with more personal objects which had belonged to Josephine including a court dress and shoes. Personally I was impressed that she had hundreds of pairs of shoes!

The exhibition was a good picture of the taste of one person who in turn influenced the taste of a generation as well as the nature of collections.

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