During the Second French Empire, the reign of Emperor Napoleon III, Paris was the largest city in continental Europe and a leading center of finance, commerce, fashion, and the arts. The population of
Music in the Tuileries Gardens by Édouard Manet (1862)
Napoleon III by Alexandre Cabanel (about 1865)
The new boulevards and parks built by Haussmann during the Second Empire
An editorial cartoon of 1858 illustrates the opposition of many residents of the Paris suburbs to Napoleon III's plan to make them part of the city.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascen
Ingres in c. 1850–1867
Male Torso (1800), Montauban, Musée Ingres
The Envoys of Agamemnon, 1801, oil on canvas, École des Beaux Arts, Paris
Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne, 1806, oil on canvas, 260 x 163 cm, Musée de l'Armée, Paris