On Wednesday, 18 February 2009, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts hosted an Afternoon Study Session on Napoleon Bonaparte. The Honorable Senator Serge Joyal presented his talk on Napoleon and French Canada and Bernard Chevallier, retired director of the Musé de Malmaison gave a presentation on Household Furniture under the Empire. Both excellent presentations were in French and illustrated by outstanding graphics.

The program then switched to English. Todd Porterfield of the University of Montreal gave a talk entitled Becoming Empire, a careful analysis of perhaps the most famous of Napoleonic paintings, Le Sacre de Napoléon by Jacques-Louis David. This was followed by INS President David Markham’s talk on The New Alexander: Napoleon in Egypt and the Holy Land, using images from his personal Napoleonic collection.

A highlight of the program was a special ceremony when President Markham made Nathalie Bondil, the director of the museum, a Fellow in the International Napoleonic Society. This honor was in recognition of her very important work with the Ben Weider collection.

All four presentations were well-received by the audience, who were then invited to meet with the speakers in the Weider Collection galleries.

The INS congratulates Director Bondil for her excellent work with the museum. We also recognize the outstanding contribution of Hélène Nadeau, Head of the Education and Community Programs department of the museum, in organizing the event and making all of the arrangements for the participants.