Not long after graduating from the École Militaire, the young artillery corporal decided it was high time he become initiated in the ways of love. He set out with his usual sense of purpose for the notorious colonnade of the Palais-Royale, but it is said he only made a courageous advance on his fourth attempt.

I had long been struck by this image of the story above in one of the many biographies I’ve read about the emperor, and I thought it offered some interesting possibilities for the contrast in lighting: The warm light above the lady of the evening in the colonnade, and the cold moonlight on the young officer peering in. For the Napoleon figure, I used a head in the spares box, while the woman started as a Metal Modeles figure of a First Empire woman in a ball gown, heavily reworked, as seen by the in-progress shots below. As always, construction of the box started with a lot of toying around with sight lines and pieces of cardboard.