Setting the Emperor's Table

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Artist: Gustave Le Gray (French, 1820–1884)
Medium: Albumen silver print
Size: Image: 30.8 × 36.4 cm (12 1/8 × 14 5/16 in.)
Culture: French
Museum: J. Paul Getty Museum
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

The French Emperor Napoleon III commissioned Gustave Le Gray to "record the principal scenes?taken from each of the camps of the Guard, and portraits of the officers, generals and superiors, French and foreign, who had traveled to the camp." The camps were established near Paris at Châlon-sur-Marne for the twenty-five thousand men of the Imperial Guard and their staff. The photographs commemorating the Guard's six-week presence at the camp were subsequently assembled into presentation albums given by the Emperor to each general.

Napoleon and the Empress Eugénie stayed in a tent of plain blue and white striped ticking, "recalling nothing of the luxury that always accompanies a sovereign." They clearly did not eschew all luxury; here Le Gray records the preparations for a banquet outside of the Imperial tent. Though the seating consists of camp stools, two soldiers have draped the tables with heavy white damask cloths and set them with crystal.

Text: J. Paul Getty Trust, CC BY 4.0.