Louis Le Coeur (active 1780 to after 1800) made this color aquatint and etching, "Fete du Sacre et Couronnement de leurs Majestes Imperiales," for the album Ceremonies et Fetes du Sacre et Couronnement published in Paris in 1806. It de­picts the fireworks in the Place de Greve produced for the coronation of Emperor Napoleon I and Empress Josephine on December 16, 1804. It came to the John Hay Library, Brown University, in 1982 as part of the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collec­tion, one of the world's largest collections devoted to the study of military iconography. The collec­tion includes over 25,000 printed books and 60,000 prints, drawings, paintings, and photographs which illustrate the military and naval uniforms of all nations and eras.
The print was one of nearly 100 items from the John Hay Library included in the exhibition "The Collection of Brown University" mounted this spring. An illustrated catalog of the exhibition is available for $10, postpaid, from Diana Johnson, Bell Gallery, Box 1861, Brown University, Provi­dence, R1 02912.