Artist unknown

Box with Napoleon Portrait (after a Painting by Vasily Vereshchagin) (ca. 1900)

Photo: N. Lackner / UMJ

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In the first decade of the 19th century, Napoleon’s seemingly unstoppable conquests posed a fundamental threat to Europe’s old order. Yet even in countries such as Austria, officially opposed to the French Revolution, there was much sympathy for the dictator. His conquests brought a sweeping program of modernization based on the revolution’s principles, which the middle class tended to support. They also might have admired his status as a populist autocrat of an expanding nation-empire—run not by an aristocracy but by the bourgeoisie. This admiration for Napoleon and his model of governance would play a decisive role in the rise of nationalism.

Wood, painted, 6.5 × 15 × 15 cm

History Museum / Universalmuseum Joanneum