If one word could summarize the experience of this exhibition, ‘peace’ would certainly be appropriate. Sir John Soane’s Museum is moments from manic Holborn, London, set in the tranquil surroundings of Lincoln’s Inn Fields; the strictly enforced no photos, phones or tablets policy and no audio guides brings a pleasant change. The ordered entry means that, unlike some of the major London and Paris exhibitions, there is the possibility of movement and enough time to consult the exhibits properly. 

Peace Breaks Out! London and Paris in the Summer of 1814 is set in two rooms on the first floor of Sir John Soane’s Museum, before the permanent display. The principal event that the exhibition title refers to is the Treaty of Paris, signed on 30 May 1814, ending the lengthy Anglo-French hostilities. Sir John Soane was one of the British contingent who travelled to France during the peace, solidifying the Museum’s connection with the events. The exhibition cleverly capitalises upon the significance of 1814: temporally, the bicentenary is evident, but from the opening panel, the exhibition underlines the importance of the Treaty of Paris in forming the geopolitical alliances which would last until the First World War. This places the exhibition in line with the overwhelming current commemoration of the First World War. This is further extended to 2014 through the mini-exhibition of ‘Peace Breaks Out in the Breakfast Room’, showcasing three modern-day Anglo-French perceptions of 1814 and 2014, which visitors pass as they exit.

The exhibition is structured around six major themes. The first, ‘Most Glorious & Good News’, focuses on the capture of Paris, Napoleon’s abdication and the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy. This is portrayed through a mixture of French and British artefacts, ranging from a bronze bust of Napoleon to prints, medals and music. This is then followed by ‘O Peace!’, operating a smooth transition from international to local reactions. Here, there is a collection of memorabilia recording celebrations in Birmingham and plans for festivities along the river in Yarmouth. These plans are displayed in their original book, with two copies to reveal the different aspects of the planning. The third section is entitled ‘Illustrious Visitors’, which centres on the arrival of the allies in Great Britain to celebrate and commemorate the peace. The exhibition reveals the official, popular, and even satirical reactions to this distinguished presence in Britain through a variety of media such as illuminations, medals, prints and theatre. These celebrations are reduced in the fourth display to focus on ‘The Grand Jubilee in Honour of Peace’, held on 1 August 1814. Three prints wonderfully illustrate the entertainment of the Jubilee, including mock naval battles, hot air balloons and illuminations. The ephemerality of the celebrations is captured further through souvenir watch-papers and commemorative broadsheets. 

The second room contains the final two themes and is much more focused on Soane’s personal interactions with France and the figure of Napoleon. The exhibits in this room are also principally from the Soane collection, whereas those in the first room were generally from the private collection of Alexander Rich. The display cabinets on the walls concentrate on ‘Travel to France in 1814’, with the largest object of the exhibition, a French map of Paris bordered with illustrations of its monuments, really stealing the show. This map was used by Soane on his journey to Paris in 1814. It neatly marks the transition into the more Soane- and architecture-focused second room where large lecture drawings of Parisian architecture are displayed alongside practical documents such as passports and menus (where ‘bière anglaise’ comes after Sauterne, Champagne and Meursault under the white wines). The final thematic section continues the focus on the individual while referring back to the first exhibits under the title ‘The Architect and the Emperor: The self-made Man, Soane and Napoleon’. The central display cabinets here present Napoleonic propagandistic memorabilia from before, during and after Napoleon’s rule. Medals from 1796 to 1812 mark the Corsican’s achievements as a general and ruler and sumptuous books present beautiful hand-coloured illustrations of Napoleonic architecture. 

The combination of these six themes results in both a transnational and a domestic focus, and both London and Paris are very much the centre of attention, against the backdrop of Alexander I of Russia, Wilhelm III of Prussia and Francis I of Austria. The exhibition also reveals different discourses surrounding artefacts. An example is a print of two soldiers in the second room: the English soldier’s coat has ridden up, leaving his buttocks uncovered, which the accompanying panel underlines as a possible hint to his sexuality. Similarly, two prints opposite show an English gentleman arriving malnourished in France and leaving having eaten the French innkeeper out of house and home, as the relevant panel details. However, smaller nuances are overlooked: in the first print of the Englishman arriving, the disembarking ship is full to the brim with passengers, graced by a dove with an olive branch, looking towards the open windows of the inn; in the second print he leaves with the shutters firmly shut, without a dove, only to be met by a few soldiers on-board the once teeming ship. 

There are also missed opportunities: why is Russia incarnated in the figure of its ruler Alexander I, whereas it is the Duke of Wellington rather than the Prince Regent who symbolises Great Britain? Although the festivities to mark the peace at Welshpool were recalled for over seventy years, as we are told in the second section of the exhibition, why has 1814, which created such an important balance of power, fallen into neglect? The Anglo-French peace of 1802 is mentioned a couple of times in the exhibition, but how was 1814 different for contemporary society? A quickly reproduced commemorative jug from 1814, an updated version of an 1802 prototype, hints at one element of the peace’s reception. Did the fall of Napoleon seal the end of the fear about the French Revolution? Likewise, Paris had been the centre of an Empire stretching from the Iberian Peninsular to Russia; although the exhibition deals with the regime change in Paris, what did this mean for the once French Italian states, whose beautiful temporary architectural structures, recorded in a magnificent edition in the second room, remain out of sight in both the exhibition and the catalogue?

These questions are largely addressed in the exhibition catalogue (£15) by Alexander Rich, Gisela Gledhill, and Dr. Jerzy Kierkuć-Bieliński, but an additional panel could have made the exhibition much more cohesive in its historical aims. Indeed, there are times when the exhibition and the catalogue seem almost separated: whereas the visitor is welcomed by a black and white etching of Napoleon’s famous departure from Fontainebleau, conveniently accompanied by a British guard, the exhibition catalogue launches in with an 1808 bronze bust of Napoleon, which is exhibited on the other side of the first room. This disjuncture between the ordered catalogue and the separated exhibits is reflective of the exhibition’s presentation. The exhibition space is relatively small for so many wonderful artefacts, and threads of the first four themes such as ‘O Peace!’ or ‘Illustrious Visitors’ are taken up again in different sections of the first room. This is certainly democratic, allowing every visitor enough time to reflect at pleasure, and it contributes to binding the six thematic threads together, underlining the complexity of the events of Summer 1814. However, it can also exude a confused impression, especially given the more ordered nature of the fifth and sixth themes in the second room.

Peace Breaks Out! is certainly a charming exhibition in the delightful setting of Sir John Soane’s Museum. While more could have been made of the wider continental situation in 1814 and its ramifications given the opening attachment to the centenary of the First World War, it remains true to its title and it is refreshing to encounter such a truly international exhibition, combining London and Paris, both in its exhibits and its approach.

Peace Breaks Out! London and Paris in the Summer of 1814 is at Sir John Soane’s Museum, London, from 20 June to 13 September 2014. It is accompanied by a catalogue of the same name.