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| Empire Style |
| One of the most visually consistent styles in design history, the period owes its precision and clarity to the strongly held convictions of Napoleon I |
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Napoleon's bedroom at Malmaison, near Paris. |
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This ormolu-mounted console table exemplifies the Empire style. |
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by George Read
About the Style
Empire, which can be pronounced in both the English and the Continental manner, (ahm-peer), without risk of pretension, is a brooding and muscular style that is handsome and sharply striking to the eye. The polished uniformity and almost heel-clicking regimentation that is so deeply embedded in this style is a product of its early childhood, which took place in France, during the Revolutionary years of the 1790s. There, the Empire was also an attitude and a new way of life, with its own costume (a soft, simple high-waisted gown), a color (deep French blue), a wood (mahogany), a leader (Napoleon I), and a symbol (the bumblebee).
History
The textbook dates of the Empire style coincide with the Napoleonic Empire (1804-1815), but these dates must not be accepted literally. The period actually began in about 1795, in France, during the earlier Directoire period. While it is true that the popularity of the Empire style skidded to an abrupt halt after Napoleon's second, and final, abdication in June of 1815, elsewhere, where sensibilities were less raw, it persisted for several decades. As is logical, the farther one travels from Napoleonic carnage, the longer the style endured. The period, called Regency in England and Biedermeier in Austria and Germany, ended in about 1830 on the Continent. In America, which was far removed from the conflict, and where, as in France, the style is called Empire, its popularity lasted until about 1850. Napoleon's Influence
Empire forms rarely wander off-center and puzzling variations are exceptional. Much of the credit for the precision and clarity of the period lies in two strongly held convictions of Napoleon I, who was its driving force.
The Emperor required money to fund his armies, and he believed that the production of luxury goods was a necessary adjunct to a strong economy. To this end, Napoleon supported the arts in France in a way that had not been seen since the glory days of Louis XIV. Napoleon's second driving conviction was in the power of theater, and in his preoccupation with image, almost nothing escaped his attention. He renamed his Haitian-born wife (from Rose to Josephine), redesigned the uniforms of the entire military, supervised the minutest details of his dress, including the hats. He later redecorated eight royal palaces that had recently been stripped of their Bourbon furnishings by the Revolutionaries. The residences were to become a reincarnation of Imperial Caesarian Rome, re-painted, re-carpeted, and refurnished in the newest Empire taste.
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