Empress Joséphine's Garden: School Visits

Making its global debut, Empress Joséphine's Garden is a modern, immersive large-screen digital experience exploring the little-known story of Empress Joséphine Bonaparte’s garden in Paris.

Students will love the storytelling and lush visual detail of this screening experience. History is brought to life through illumination, exploring the fascinating era of French Empire as great political change and new Enlightenment ideas about science, culture and the natural world intersect. 

Nicolas Baudin was commissioned by Napoléon Bonaparte to lead a maritime expedition aboard the Géographe and Naturaliste to map and explore the little-known southern coast of New Holland. Departing Le Havre in 1800 and returning in 1804, the expeditioners were tasked to engage respectfully with local inhabitants and to document and collect all manner of natural specimens. This project amassed a huge collection of plants, animals and birds along with maps and drawings that were brought back to enrich, amaze and educate. Many of these plants and several animals found a new home in Empress Joséphine's gardens at Malmaison, representing the strange wonders of this new world of Terres Australes.   

Designed as a pleasure garden, Joséphine worked as a patron of the botanical enterprise at Malmaison with renowned botanists and collectors around the globe. During the Napoleonic Wars, ships carrying specimens for Joséphine were allowed free passage. Between 1803 and 1814 hundreds of species of plants were introduced to Europe. Joséphine pioneered the planting of acacia, melaleuca and eucalyptus throughout France and propagated many species of Australian plants. Another legacy of her project was in commissioning the work of botanical artists such as Pierre Redouté, to create illustrations of many of the vast catalogue of botanical specimens gathered.  

This screening experience will offer students the following:

• Explain the context of change from which the French Empire emerges after the French Republic
• Discuss the story of Napoléon and Joséphine de Beauharnais and their rise towards power and influence
• Detail the Baudin maritime expedition (1800-1804) and the commission to create maps, engage respectfully with local inhabitants and collect specimens from the southern coast of New Holland (Australia) and beyond. 
• Immerse the viewer in the visual splendour of the world of Malmaison and the famous gardens.
• Explore the scientific and cultural legacy of the Enlightenment era of French exploration that manifested in the gardens of Malmaison.

"You will make up this collection of living animals of all kinds, insects, and especially of birds with beautiful plumage. As regards animals, I don’t need to tell you how to choose between those intended for the menageries and those for a collection of pure pleasure. You will appreciate that it must comprise flowers, shrubs, seeds, shells, precious stones, timber for fine works of marquetry, insects, butterflies, etc."
- Napoléon Bonaparte, First Consul of France to Nicolas Baudin, 1800

Key curriculum concepts explored

Year 4 HASS

History

The journey(s) of at least one world navigator, explorer or trader up to the late 18th century (e.g. Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan), including their contacts and exchanges with societies in Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania, and the impact on one society (ACHASSK084)

Humanities and Social Sciences skills

Year 9 HASS

History

Depth study 1: Investigating the Industrial Revolution (1750–1914)

Humanities and Social Sciences skills

YEAR 11 Modern History

Year 11 ATAR Historical Knowledge and Understanding

• Elective 1: The Enlightenment (1750–89)
• Elective 3: The French Revolution (1774–1804)

Year 11 GENERAL Historical Knowledge and Understanding

• Napoleon, the Revolution and the Empire

Historical Skills

All Years Visual Arts

All Years French Language