In what years was the Napoleon III style popular?
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The Napoleon III style was a highly eclectic style of architecture and decorative arts, which used elements of many different historical styles,and also made innovative use of modern materials, such as iron frameworks and glass skylights. It flourished during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III in France (1852–1871) and had an important influence on architecture and decoration in the rest of Europe and the United States. Major examples of the style include the Opéra Garnier in Paris by Charles Garnier (1862–71), the Bibliothèque nationale de France. and the Church of Saint Augustine (1860–1871). The architectural style was closely connected with Haussmann's renovation of Paris carried out during the Second Empire; the new buildings, such as the opera, were intended as the focal points of the new boulevards.
Napoleon III style
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Another popular influence was the Louis XVI style, or French neoclassicism, which was preferred by the Empress Eugénie. Her rooms at the Tuileries Palace and other Places were decorated in this style.
Napoleon III style
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The dominant architectural style of the Second Empire was eclecticism, drawing liberally from the Gothic style, Renaissance style, and the styles dominant during the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI. The style was described by Émile Zola, not an admirer of the Empire, as "the opulent bastard child of all the styles.". The best example was the Opéra Garnier, begun in 1862 but not finished until 1875. The architect was Charles Garnier (1825-1898), who won the competition for the design when he was only thirty-seven. When asked by the Empress Eugénie what the style of the building was called, he replied simply, "Napoleon III." At the time, it was at the time the largest theater in the world, but much of the interior space was devoted to purely decorative spaces: grand stairways, huge foyers for promenading, and large private boxes. Another example was the Mairie, or city hall, of the 1st arrondissement of Paris, built in 1855-1861 in a neo-Gothic style by the architect Jacques Ignace Hittorff (1792-1867).
Napoleon III style
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Other sculptors with more enduring fame were François Rude, who made his celebrated "La Marseillaise" sculpture (formally known as "The departure of the volunteers"), a ten-meter high bas-relief for the Arc de Triomphe (1833-36), a project begun by Napoleon and completed by Louis Philippe. Rude also made the romantic "Napoleon awakening to immortality" in 1845-47. This illustrated popular movement to restore the reputation of Napoleon and the revolutionary spirit, which had been suppressed under the Restoration, but which reappeared with the return of the ashes of Napoleon to France under Louis Philippe. The Napoleonic spirit emerged triumphant in the 1848 Revolution, and the election of Napoleon III as the first President of France.
Louis Philippe style
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Despite the opposition in the legislature, Napoleon III's reforms remained popular in the rest of the country. A new plebiscite was held in 1870, on the text: "The people approve the liberal reforms added to the Constitution since 1860 by the Emperor, with the agreement of the legislative bodies and ratified by the Senate on April 20, 1870." Napoleon III saw this as a referendum on his rule as Emperor: "By voting yes," he wrote, "you will chase away the threat of revolution; you will place the nation on a solid base of order and liberty, and you will make it easier to pass on the Crown to my son." When the votes were counted, Napoleon III had lost Paris and the other big cities but decisively won the rest of the country. The final vote was 7,336,434 votes yes, 1,560,709 votes no, and 1,900,000 abstentions. Léon Gambetta, the leader of the republican opposition, wrote in despair, "We were crushed. The Emperor is more popular than ever."
Napoleon III
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While the academic painters dominated the Salon, new artists and new movements rose to prominent prominence under Napoleon III. 
Gustave Courbet (1819–1872) was the leader of the school of realist painters during the Second Empire who depicted the lives of ordinary people and rural life, as well as landscapes. He delighted in scandal and condemned the art establishment, the Academy of Fine Arts, and Napoleon III. In 1855, when his submissions to the Salon were rejected, he put on his own exhibit of forty of his paintings in a nearby building. In 1870, Napoleon III proposed giving the Legion of Honour to Courbet, but Courbet disdainfully rejected the offer.
Napoleon III style
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The French Renaissance and the style of Henry II were popular influences on chests and cabinets, buffets and credences, which were massive and built like small cathedrals, decorated with columns, frontons, cartouches, mascarons, and carved angels and chimeras. They were usually constructed of walnut or oak, or sometimes of poirier stained to resemble ebony.
Napoleon III style
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Basset-type hounds became popular during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III (r. 1852–1870). In 1853, Emmanuel Fremiet, "the leading sculptor of animals in his day" exhibited bronze sculptures of Emperor Napoleon III's basset hounds at the Paris Salon. Ten years later in 1863 at the first exhibition of dogs held in Paris, basset hounds attained international attention.
Basset Hound
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The Napoleon III style of landscape design for urban parks was very influential outside of France. The American landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted had a map of the Bois de Boulogne on the wall of his office. Central Park in New York City and Golden Gate Park in San Francisco both show the influence of the Napoleon III parks.
Napoleon III style
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Napoleon III's many projects included the completion of the Louvre Palace, which adjoined his own residence in the Tuileries Palace. Between 1864 and 1868, He commissioned the architect Hector Lefuel to rebuild the Pavillon de Flore from the Renaissance Louvre; Lefuel added many of his own decorations and ideas to the pavilion, including the state of Flore by the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. He also added apartments for the Empress, visible today, and rebuilt entirely the Porte des Lions of the Louvre in a graceful and harmonious if not perfectly historical style. This gateway originally featured a statue of Napoleon III over the central arch, which was removed during the Third Republic.
Napoleon III style