Le Panorama du siècle : la famille impériale entourée de nombreuses personnalités du Second Empire devant le palais Bourbon

Henri Gervex's Le Panorama du siècle: la famille impériale entourée de personnalités du Second Empire (1889) is one of a series of large-format works documenting French history across the nineteenth century, commissioned for the Exposition Universelle of 1889 — France's centennial year. Gervex collaborated with Alfred Stevens on this panoramic project, creating a visual encyclopedia of the century's major figures. The Second Empire panel depicts Napoleon III's court and the glittering social world of Haussmann's Paris, a deliberate exercise in historical documentation by a painter who had himself been part of that world's successor culture. The work is in the Petit Palais.

The panoramic format requires Gervex to organize numerous figures within a coherent spatial scene. His handling combines the documentary precision necessary for historical portraiture — each figure must be recognizable — with the compositional skill needed to make the large group readable. The palette is warm and official, suited to imperial ceremony.