The Imperial Impresario: Napoleon’s Theatre of Power

In just fifteen years, Emperor Napoleon I created an enduring image of Napoleonic France as the successor to Imperial Rome. He did this by the deft use of iconography and what today would be called ‘branding’, which he applied to every aspect of his family, the government, the military and the built environment.

The tangible remains of this grand, imperial ‘theatre’ have excited royal and other collectors ever since. The Imperial Impresario take a wholly new look at Napoleon and the First Empire by interpreting the era in theatrical terms: the players, the sets, the props, the costumes, the tours and the script, much of which has survived.

The fully illustrated book includes a wide range of Napoleonica, including items still in royal, national, regimental and private collections – as well as items such as the Emperor’s berline, captured in the immediate aftermath of Waterloo and lost in a fire at Madame Tussaud’s in 1925.