Portrait de Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte en Prince-Président

Gustave Le Gray

1852 · Albumen silver print from paper negative · Photographs

Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (1808–1873) was a nephew of Napoleon I and the most direct Bonapartist heir by the mid-nineteenth century. After the Revolution of 1848 and the abdication of King Louis-Philippe, he returned to France from exile in England and won an overwhelming election as president of the Second Republic. On December 2, 1851, in the third year of the single four-year presidential term allowed by the constitution, he staged a coup d'état, dissolved the legislative assembly, decreed a new constitution, and assumed dictatorial powers, a move that was subsequently approved by a public referendum of dubious legitimacy. A year later, on December 2, 1852, again the anniversary of Napoleon I's coronation as emperor, Louis-Napoleon declared the dissolution of the Republic and the establishment of the Second Empire. He took the title Emperor Napoleon III.

Artist

Gustave Le Gray

Date

1852

Medium

Albumen silver print from paper negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Gilman Collection, Museum Purchase, 2005