Number 43

John Grimaldi the First, lord of Monaco from 1427 to 1454, had to fight during all these years against the aims of his big neighbours – namely the Republic of Genoa, the duchies of Savoy and Milan –, eager to seize Monaco, strategic stronghold between Provence and Italy. Despite the determination he made to preserve the independence of his Rock of Monaco, John ended up selling, in the spring of 1451, his seigneury to Dauphin Louis, future king of France Louis XI, retaining only the government of the place in the name of the Dauphin. Thus, totally ignored, the delphinal banner waved for three years on the towers of the two castles of Monaco, until the death of John Grimaldi and the beginning of the reign of his son Catalan. Finally the place remained in the hands of the Grimaldi, the Dauphin having not executed the clauses of the bill of sale and having abandoned his plans of foreign Italian policy.

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A volume housed in the Archives of the Principality of Monaco contains drafts of letters written in 1630 by Honoré II to various individuals, revealing his lively collecting activity, especially as regards landscape and still-life paintings, mostly Flemish. His privileged correspondents were Jan Roos and Cornelis de Wael, who were then active in Genoa, and from whom he commissioned numerous paintings, also on the occasion of their visits to Monaco in November 1629 (de Wael) and February-March 1630 (Roos). In addition the letters reveal the Prince’s appreciation for two of the major painters in Genoa, Domenico Fiasella and Luciano Borzone, who were repeatedly asked to work for him. His interests spread beyond Liguria, reaching artists in Milan, Rome, Naples, Florence, Flanders and Spain. In Madrid he commissioned the portraits of the Spanish Royals; from Rome he received the portrait of Cardinal Teodoro Trivulzio, his brother-in-law, as well as various paintings by the Neapolitan Domenico Viola, who was then in the circle of the Bamboccianti. His writing reveals a very defined taste, expressed through clear judgements on the quality of paintings and precise requests to artists regarding subject, material and format.

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The Monaco Egg, a masterpiece made by the House of Fabergé, has an undeniable imperial provenance.

Previously dated 1887, it was presented by Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra to Empress Maria Feodorovna in honor of the 1895 Easter festivities, the first celebration of its kind since Emperor Alexander III’s death in the Fall of 1894. This egg initiated the tradition of a series of eggs offered by Nicholas II to his mother. With the exception of the third imperial egg, whose surprise included a watch that transformed the egg into a clock, the Monaco egg represents the first clock egg in the imperial series. Many of the clock eggs were presented to Empress Maria who enjoyed collecting elaborate mechanisms.

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Created in 1868 in the context of urban development linked to the growth of Monte-Carlo, the cemetery of Salines was expected to face the new needs induced by the increase of the population of the Principality in the second half of the nineteenth century. It also had to meet the new sanitary requirements and replace the old Monegasque small graveyards, including that of the Saint-Nicolas church, the most important. Having become the only cemetery in Monaco, it experienced the same problems of space as the Principality and sometimes had to use the same strategies to develop. But, beyond these questions of urbanism, this cemetery is, like other necropolis of the French or Italian Riviera, an interesting example illustrating the funerary Mediterranean culture.

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As early as 1876, Carl Vogt proposed for a research centre to be established in Villefranche-sur-Mer, taking into account the peculiarities of the fauna and topography in that area. During the 1880s, several attempts were made, but difficulties arose between the protagonists: the French Jules Barrois, the Swiss Hermann Fol and the Russian Alexis Korotneff. When Prince Albert I of Monaco spent several months in his Principality in 1890, all these persons tried to obtain his help.

The main wish of the Prince was to resume his oceanographic work. Over about fifteen days, he went to sea on board Fol’s well-equipped yacht, Amphiaster. So he became acquainted with the use of a steamer. A study was undertaken for the apparatus, particularly the traps and closing nets devised and/or improved by him and those used by Fol; the methods for their use and the results obtained were thoroughly compared. Before and after the creation of the Oceanographic Museum, relations between the Prince and the oceanographers in Villefranche-sur-Mer were restricted to neighbourly terms, exchanges of animals and information. A program for common researches was never concluded.

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The principality of Monaco takes a significant part in the life and work of the Scottish writer Robert W. Service (1874–1958). After having been world widely celebrated for his Canadian High North writings and then regarding his First World War poems on the Somme front, he dwelt at Monaco which inspires him The Poisoned Paradise. A Romance of Monte-Carlo published in 1922. This book alongside with its film adaptation took advantage of the hugely mainstream adventure novel trend. Besides of this literary success, the novel is giving an extremely relevant account of Monaco during the Roaring Twenties.

After the Second World War, Robert W. Service settles definitively with his family at Monaco where he finds, as he explained it many times, all the propitious components allowing his inspiration to flourish. Service was regularly celebrated by the local and Anglo-Saxon media; when in 1956, the Royal Wedding happened to be another highlight owing to his special moments with Grace Kelly and her parents.

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Claude de Kemoularia’s mission in the service of Prince Rainier III of Monaco from 1965 to 1967 coincided with the climax and the outcome of the crisis between the Prince of Monaco and Aristotle Onassis. Kemoularia’s personal archives allow to highlight the details of the negotiations that led to the departure of Onassis from the Société des Bains de mer (S.B.M). Kémoularia’s direct correspondence with Rainier III updates the principality’s methods of government a few years after the establishment of the Monegasque Constitution of 1962. It also shows the importance for Monaco of French support, particularly in banking circles face Onassis.

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Designed as a photographic tour through the Palace State rooms, this exhibition, presented in the State rooms in the Palace of Monaco, from 14 Mai to 15 October 2019, organized by the Palace of Monaco Archive and the Audiovisual Institute of Monaco, follows in Grace Kelly’s footsteps in the very places where she met Prince Rainier, around the dress she wore that day, along with personal items, letters, testimonials, newspaper clips and film excerpts. All this documentation shows how the reportage, which went virtually unnoticed at the time, became legend, with its memories and anecdotes.

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