Editing Eugénie de Montijo (section)

===Role in the arts===
The Empress possessed one of the most important jewellery collections of her time; Catherine Granger recalls that her purchases were estimated at the enormous sum of 3,600,000 francs, a sum to be compared with the 200,000 francs devoted to the purchase of works of art for her personal collection. The American jeweller [[Charles Lewis Tiffany|Charles Tiffany]], who had already acquired the French crown jewels, bought most of the former Empress's jewels from the government and sold them to the ladies of American high society.<ref>https://www.thecourtjeweller.com/2018/10/empress-eugenies-bow-brooch.html</ref>

[[image:Granada - Avenida de la Constitución, Estatua de Eugenia de Montijo.jpg|Eugénie de Montijo in Granada|thumb|180px]]
The empress was "perhaps the last Royal personage to have a direct and immediate influence on fashion".<ref name="Laver">{{cite book| title=Costume & Fashion| author=James Laver| publisher=Thames & Hudson| year=1995| page=185}}</ref> She set the standard for contemporary fashion at a time when the luxury industries of Paris were flourishing.<ref name="Fury">{{Cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/impress-empress-influence-eugenie-luxury-style-still-felt-today-8824515.html| title=Impress of an empress: The influence of Eugénie on luxury style is still felt today| author=Alexander Fury| work=The Independent| date=18 September 2013| access-date=14 January 2021}}</ref> Gowns, colors, and hairstyles ''"à l'impératrice"'' were avidly copied from the empress throughout Europe and America. She was famous for her large [[crinoline]]s and for rotating her outfits throughout the day, with a different dress for the morning, afternoon, evening, and night.<ref name="Kirkland">{{cite book| title=Paris Reborn: Napoléon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City| author=Stephane Kirkland| publisher=St. Martin's Press| year=2013| page=58=59}}</ref><ref name="Laver"/> The British satirical magazine ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' christened her variously as the "Queen of Fashion", "Imperatrice de la Mode", "Countess of Crinoline", and "Goddess of the [[Bustle]]s".<ref>{{cite journal| title=The Empress's New Clothes: Fashion and Politics in Second Empire France| author=Therese Dolan| journal=Woman's Art Journal| year=1994| volume=15| number=1| page=23}}</ref> She never wore the same gown twice, and in this way commissioned and acquired an enormous wardrobe, which she disposed of in annual sales to benefit charity. Her favored couturier, [[Charles Frederick Worth]], provided hundreds of gowns to her over the years and was appointed the official dressmaker to the court in 1869.<ref name="English"/><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wrth/hd_wrth.htm| title=Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895) and the House of Worth| author=Jess Krick| publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art| year=2000| access-date=15 January 2021}}</ref> In the late 1860s, she caused a shift in fashion by turning against the crinoline and adopting Worth's "new" slimmer silhouettes with the skirt gathered in the back over a bustle.<ref name="English">{{cite book| title=A Cultural History of Fashion in the 20th and 21st Centuries: From Catwalk to Sidewalk| author=Bonnie English| publisher=Bloomsbury| year=2013| page=8}}</ref><ref name="Fury"/>

Eugénie's influence on contemporary taste extended into the decorative arts. She was a great admirer of Queen [[Marie Antoinette]] and decorated her interiors in revivals of the [[Style Louis XV|Louis XV]] and [[Louis XVI style|Louis XVI]] styles. A general vogue arose for 18th century French design, becoming known as ''"Style Louis XVI Impératrice"''.<ref>{{cite book| title=L'Art de Vivre: Decorative Arts and Design in France 1789-1989| author=Madeleine Deschamps| publisher=The Vendome Press| year=1989| page=116}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/1084| title=Cabinet ca. 1866, Alexander Roux, France| date=1866| publisher=metmuseum.org| access-date=21 January 2021}}</ref> According to Nancy Nichols Barker, her admiration for Marie Antoinette "was nearly an obsession. She collected her portraits and trinkets, lived in her suite at [[Palace of Saint-Cloud|Saint-Cloud]], had constructed a small model of the [[Petit Trianon]] in the park, and frequently engaged [[Count Joseph Alexander Hübner|Hübner]] in lugubrious conversation about the fate of the martyred queen."<ref>Barker, 2011; p. 12</ref>

In 1863, the Empress established a museum of Asian art called the [[Chinese Museum (Fontainebleau)|''musée Chinois'']] (Chinese Museum) at the [[Palace of Fontainebleau]].<ref name="Bonnet"/> She carefully curated the displays of her museum, constituting diplomatic gifts given to her by an embassy from [[Siam]] in 1860, as well as loot taken from the [[Old Summer Palace]] outside [[Beijing]] by French troops during the [[Second Opium War]]. General [[Charles Cousin-Montauban, Comte de Palikao|Charles Cousin-Montauban]] had sent crates of this loot to Eugénie as a gift, with the first shipment arriving in February 1861.<ref>McQueen, 2011; p. 228-230</ref> The collection numbers some 800 objects, with 300 coming from the sack of the Summer Palace.<ref name="Bonnet">{{Cite news| url=https://www.parismatch.com/Royal-Blog/royaute-francaise/Un-lieu-une-histoire-Le-Musee-chinois-de-l-imperatrice-Eugenie-epouse-de-Napoleon-III-au-chateau-de-Fontainebleau-recemment-cambriole-728914| title=La Musée Chinois de l'impératrice Eugénie à Fontainebleau| author=Dominique Bonnet| publisher=Paris Match| language=French| date=21 March 2015}}</ref>