‘Vizir’ – The horse of an Emporer

Born 223 years ago, “Vizir”, Napoleon I’s only naturalized horse, suffered greatly during his existence. From his life, he fought under the emperor’s saddle at the battles of Iéna (1806) and Eylau (1807). Upon his death in 1826, he was emptied and his skin, marked with the emperor’s seal, hidden from royalist agents. Transferred to England in 1839, the skin is naturalised, before returning to France in 1868. For thirty years, the horse was stored in an attic of the Louvre, forgotten by all.

In 1905, he enters the Army museum, where he has long been presented in unfavorable conditions. Exposed to excessive light and too low hydrometry, the skin, discolored and repainted, totaled 43 cracks in April 2016, poorly restored in the 1960s.

In May 2016, the museum organized a crowdfunding operation to raise funds for a basic restoration and the creation of a new waterproof showcase equipped with a climate-regulating system. The success was immediate: more than 270 donors contributed to more than €26,000. In June, the museum called on two restaurateurs specializing in organic materials and taxidermy, Yveline Huguet and Jack Thiney, to carry out all the operations necessary for the preservation and presentation to the public of Vizir in a permanent way.

For more than a month, they have multiplied the treatments and radiographs necessary to fill cracks and tears, to dust, to rehydrate and to recolour the skin, in order to give Napoleon’s most famous horse its former appearance.