The Carmelite Convent of the Rue Vaugirard. / Cell Josephine Beauharnais

 The Carmelite Convent of the Rue Vaugirard. / Cell Josephine Beauharnais. Cell Josephine de Beauharnais to the Carmelite convent, 6th arrondissement, Paris Cellule de Joséphine de Beauharnais au couvent des Carmes, rue de Vaugirard. Paris (VIème arr.). Photographie de Jean Barry (18.-19.). Avril 1909. Paris, musée Carnavalet. Paris, musée Carnavalet.

Photo: alamy/the-carmelite-convent-of-the-rue-vaugirard-cell-josephine-beauharnais-cell-josephine-de-beauharnais-to-the-carmelite-convent-6th-arrondissement-paris-cellule-de-josphine-de-beauharnais-au-couvent-des-carmes-rue-de-vaugirard-paris-

THE JOSEPHINE HOUSE.

 

6 bis, Grande-Rue
78290  Croissy-Sur-Seine
France

Joséphine House, an elegant th century building, first recalls the memory of Madame Campan; That was where he lived with her husband, between 1785 and 1792. Ms. Campan was at the age of fifteen years a reader of the daughters of Louis XV, and then a chamber woman of Queen Marie-Antoinette, to whom she remained devoted until her death on the scaffold. An outstanding educator, she founded a boarding school known as the Consulate and then the Empire, who lived through some of the Napoleonic family, and from high French society. Mrs. Campan gave interesting memories, replete with anecdotes about the turbulent life of the turn of the th and th centuries. After the passage of the Campan in this residence, Josephine, then still widow Beauharnais, lived there under Terror between 1792 and 1794 with his children Eugène and Hortense. petitfute-croissy-sur-seine

Mariage de Joséphine et Alexandre, église Saint Sulpice.

 

Les bans annonçant le mariage de Joséphine sont publiés simultanément les 5 et 6 décembre 1779 à Saint-Sulpice de Noisy-le-Grand et à Saint-Sauveur de Paris. Le contrat notarial est signé le 10 décembre 1779. Ce mariage de convenance est célébré en plein hiver, le 13 décembre 1779 à l’église Saint-Sulpice de Noisy-le-Grand par le curé de la paroisse. Joséphine offre à cette occasion deux magnifiques candélabres à l’église Saint-Sulpice.

Mme de Renaudin, avait acheté une belle propriété le 18 octobre 1776, à Noisy-le-Grand, rue de Beauvais (actuelle rue du Docteur Sureau), en vis-à-vis de la ferme des religieux de Saint-Martin-des-Champs. Elle l’offre en usufruit à Joséphine, comme cadeau de mariage. Cette demeure est évaluée avec son mobilier, ses cours, basse-cour, écuries, remises, jardin, potager et autres dépendances, à 33 000 livres.

Les enfants Beauharnais, Eugène et Hortense

Les jeunes époux passent l’hiver à Paris chez le marquis de Beauharnais à l’hôtel situé rue Thévenot, et l’été à Noisy-le-Grand. Le vicomte de Beauharnais ne vient que sporadiquement à Noisy-le-Grand voir son épouse.

Eglise_Saint-Sulpice_(Noisy-le-Grand)

Grand Hotel Tremezzo review: that happy, sunny place.

Originally the summer residence of a family of dukes (the Serbellonis), Villa Sola Cabiati is as wildly over the top as you might expect of an aristocratic playground flanking the shores of Lake Como. Huge ornate black and gold wrought-iron entrance gates open to reveal a smiling housekeeper who leads us down a gravel drive past landscaped gardens. A top-of-the-range sound system hidden within stuccoed walls plays classical music as we step, open-mouthed, into a living piece of Italian history.

The palace sleeps 12 guests, with six magnificent suites, each a treasure trove of antique furnishings and original Renaissance art. There’s even a private museum floor housing a bed slept in by Napoleon and his wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, who were friends of the Serbelloni family. Serbelloni

theweek/grand-hotel-tremezzo

privatevillasofitaly/villa-serbelloni

"Portrait of Hortense de Beauharnais" by Jean-Baptiste Isabey.

"Portrait of Hortense de Beauharnais" by Jean-Baptiste Isabey, who was born April 11, 1767 Currently on view in the Regency Fashion in Miniature rotation in gallery P24 https://bit.ly/2qaWSW4

When Louisa Adams met Joseph Bonaparte

After spending the summer of 1822 in Philadelphia nursing her sick brother, Louisa Adams accepted an invitation to visit her friends Joseph and Emily Hopkinson in nearby Bordentown, New Jersey. The Hopkinsons were friends and neighbours of Joseph Bonaparte, who had fled to the United States after Napoleon’s defeat in 1815. Joseph owned a large estate called Point Breeze, on Crosswicks Creek near the Delaware River.

Louisa arrived in Bordentown on September 16, 1822. She met Joseph – who had once been King of Naples, and then King of Spain, but now called himself the Count of Survilliers – the next day.

Read more: shannonselin/when-louisa-adams-met-joseph-bonaparte/

Joseph Bonaparte by Charles Willson Peale, 1820

The Day Thomas Jefferson’s Daughter Told Him She Wanted to Become A Nun

There was a period when Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin were all in Paris at the same time. Franklin was there as our first ambassador to the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. His job was get funds from France to bankroll the Revolution, and to cement a military alliance so we would win the war. Jefferson and Adams were there as commerce commissioners whose task it was to arrange an import/export trade deal with the French. Being in Catholic France was a new experience for all of them, and we know that the Church made a profound impression on one of Jefferson’s daughters, Patsy, and on one of Adams’ sons, John Quincy.

Polly and Patsy Jefferson were in their early teens when they arrived in Paris, so one of Jefferson’s first tasks was to find a suitable school for his daughters. All of his new French acquaintances recommended an elite convent school, l’Abbaye Royal de Panthemont in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. There the girls studied mathematics, history, geography, and they learned modern languages. It was a splendid education, of a kind that very few girls received back in America. Jefferson’s daughters also learned to play the harpsichord from Claude Balbastre, the organist at the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

In addition to operating a school, the nuns also offered rooms to aristocratic ladies who sought a quiet retreat from their troubles—the lack of a husband, the death of a husband, or the separation from a husband. One of the ladies living at the Panthemont at the same time as Polly and Patsy was Josephine de Beauharnais, the future lover, wife, and empress of Napoleon. Read all:ncregister/the-day-thomas-jeffersons-daughter-told-him-she-wanted-to-become-a-nun

L’hôtel d’Eugène de Beauharnais à Paris se raconte

Dans le très beau salon des quatre saisons de l’hôtel de Beauharnais à Paris, des cygnes dorés s’invitent sur les pilastres qui courent autour de la pièce. Sur la corniche qu’ils supportent, ce sont des aigles, tout aussi resplendissant d’or, qui déploient leurs ailes. Lorsqu’il fut créé, au tout début du XIXe siècle, ce décor n’était en rien anodin.

L’aigle évoque Napoléon Bonaparte, le cygne son beau-fils Eugène de Beauharnais. Ce dernier est devenu propriétaire de cette belle demeure, édifiée en 1713 par l’architecte Boffrand, le 20 mai 1803 à l’âge de 22 ans. Et, bénéficiant des conseils avisés en matière de déco de sa mère Joséphine de Beauharnais et de sa sœur Hortense, et surtout de la générosité de l’empereur Napoléon Ier, qui à cette époque voyait en lui un successeur pour le trône, Eugène a fait subir aux lieux, en seulement quelques années, une totale et fort coûteuse métamorphose intérieure. parismatch/Royal-Blog/royaute-francaise/L-hotel-d-Eugene-de-Beauharnais-a-Paris-se-raconte-1111091

Napoleonic 'treasure' unearthed in Tasmanian bookshop

Left: Co-owners of the Cracked and Spineless bookshop, Richard Sprent (left) and Mike Gray, with the journal.

 

A handwritten journal found buried in an Australian bookshop is believed to be a prominent soldier's diary from the Napoleonic wars, writes Paul Carter.

 

Royal Engineer John Squire was an officer who fought for the British army in the Napoleonic era, but his interests extended far beyond the battlefield. Sophisticated and possessing a talent for writing, he served in theatres of war around the world and was prominent enough to be mentioned in diplomatic dispatches.

Lt Col Squire was a worldly man, with an interest in history and antiquities. So it's fitting that his writings are now causing great excitement on the other side of the planet, in the colony he'd have known as Van Diemen's Land. At the back of a second-hand book store, at the back of a Hobart arcade, at the back of the world in Tasmania, it appears that one of Squire's journals has been discovered.

The new owners of the Cracked and Spineless bookshop discovered the journal in a pile of old books tucked away in a cupboard. It details the English-Portuguese army's second siege of the Spanish city of Badajoz, which took place in May and June 1811, during the Napoleonic Wars.
The bookshop's co-owner, Mike Gray, said the journal was discovered a couple of weeks ago.
"The previous owner collected hundreds of thousands of books," Mr Gray said. "Some of them were in a cupboard so I sent in someone interested in old books to see if they could find anything.
"They brought out the journal and I thought 'yeah, maybe about $20, but I'll check it'. Mr Gray said the journal could have been in the shop for 20 years, but no-one knew how it arrived. A working theory is that it arrived with the colonists who established Van Diemen's Land.

'A treasure'

Squire died of fever in 1812, soon after the third and successful British siege of Badajoz, which comprised part of the Peninsular War during the Napoleonic era. Some of his letters survive at the British Library. His journals and essays ranged in content from the technical aspects of war to his involvement with antiquities.

These works and his supporting role in some of history's great moments have made Squire a moderately well-known figure among scholars who study the era. Gavin Daly, an expert in the Peninsular War at the University of Tasmania, said he believed the journal was a genuine "treasure". A handwriting match could be made with Squire's letters kept at the British Library, he said. Dr Daly said Squire was mentioned twice in dispatches by the Duke of Wellington. "Squire pops up in Egypt in 1801 when the French surrendered Alexandria. He was in South America in 1807. He was in Sweden in 1808. He was in the Netherlands at various stages and ended up in the peninsula," Dr Daly said.

Officer and gentleman

"He's not just an interesting figure as an engineer but he's also important because he had broad interests in history, geography and antiquities. "He was present when the Rosetta Stone was given to the British. He writes a paper on Roman antiquities in Egypt, and he accompanies William Richard Hamilton east and is involved in bringing some of the Elgin Marbles to Britain. "When he died in the peninsula in 1812 of fever, not long after the third and final siege of Badajoz, there was a considerable lamenting of his life. "He'd been rapidly promoted … but there was also this sense that he was the archetypal gentleman officer, who mixed in broad intellectual circles. He had a broad curiosity about the world."   Dr Daly said the journal was focused on many of the technical aspects of the siege."There's not a lot in the journal about broader reflections about the nature of the war or the nature of the campaign," Dr Daly said. "What comes through though is someone who is very much focused on being as good an officer as he can - he says his foremost obligation being an officer is to do his duty. "This is a very professional soldier."

Image copyright Paul Carter

Image caption The journal is mostly focused on the technical aspects of the siege, rather than the broader context surrounding it

The King of Rome, Napoleon II

Read all about the birth of the King of Rome:  shannonselin/birth-king-of-rome/

Napoleon, a prey to silent agitation, watched this painful scene, encouraging all present by his brave attitude. At last, after many efforts, and in the midst of so much anguish, the so-impatiently-desired child came to light. It was a son, pale, motionless, and to all appearances lifeless. In spite of all the measures taken in such cases, the child remained seven minutes without giving any signs of life. The Emperor standing in front of him was following in silence and with an air of profound attention, every movement of the accoucheur, when at last he saw the child’s breast rise, the mouth open and a breath exhaled. He feared lest it might be the first and last, but a cry escaping from the child’s lungs tells him that his son has taken possession of life. All anxiety then ceases. In the effusion of his joy Napoleon bent over the child, seized it in his arms, with a spontaneous movement, carried it to the door of the drawing-room in which all the grandees of his Empire were assembled and presenting it to them said: ‘Here is the King of Rome.’ He then returned and placed the child back in M. Dubois’s hands saying: ‘I give you back your child.’ …

Read about the life of Napolein II shannonselin/napoleon-ii

Painting: Napoleon II, styled King of Rome, later Duke of Reichstadt, by Thomas Lawrence, 1818-1819

 

napoleon/biographies

The Countess, Napoleon and St. Helena: In Exile With The Emperor 1815 to 1821

When Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the remote island of St. Helena after his defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 he took with him twenty-four people, including his doctor, servants and four of his Generals.

One of the Generals, Count Henri-Gatien Bertrand, was Napoleon’s Grand Marshal of the Palace. Count Bertrand was accompanied by his wife Countess Françoise Elisabeth (Fanny) Bertrand and their three children. Tall, elegant and aristocratic the Countess was a feisty and beautiful young woman who had shone in French Society. She hated the island of St. Helena ‘The Devil shit this place as he flew from one continent to the other’ she said on her arrival. But loyal to her husband she stayed by his side until Napoleon’s death on 5th May 1821 and was at the ex-Emperor’s bedside when he died. Read more Countess-Napoleon-St-Helena

 

The Bertrand’s Cottage on St Helena, built 1816

 

georgianera/countess-francoise-elisabeth-bertrand-fanny-dillon

madamegilflurt/napoleons-exhorbitant-expense-account

What did Napoleon’s wives think of each other?

In September 1810, Napoleon advised Josephine that the new Empress was pregnant. It was suggested to Josephine that she leave Paris during Marie Louise’s confinement. Josephine was thus at Navarre on March 20, 1811, when the ringing of bells and booming of cannons announced the birth of Napoleon’s and Marie Louise’s son, the King of Rome. She wrote to Napoleon:

Amid the numerous felicitations you receive from every corner of Europe…can the feeble voice of a woman reach your ear, and will you deign to listen to her who so often consoled your sorrows and sweetened your pains, now that she speaks to you only of that happiness in which all your wishes are fulfilled! … I can conceive every emotion you must experience, as you divine all that I feel at this moment; and though separated, we are united by that sympathy which survives all events.
I should have desired to learn of the birth of the King of Rome from yourself, and not from the sound of the cannon of Evreux, or the courier of the prefect. I know, however, that in preference to all, your first attentions are due to the public authorities of the State, to the foreign ministers, to your family, and especially to the fortunate Princess who has realized your dearest hopes. She cannot be more tenderly devoted to you than I; but she has been enabled to contribute more toward your happiness by securing that of France. She has then a right to your first feelings, to all your cares; and I, who was but your companion in times of difficulty – I cannot ask more than a place in your affection far removed from that occupied by the Empress Maria Louisa. Not till you shall have ceased to watch by her bed, not till you are weary of embracing your son, will you take the pen to converse with your best friend – I will wait. (1)

Read all: shannonselin/what-did-napoleons-wives-think-of-each-other/ 

7 things you (probably) didn’t know about the Napoleonic Wars

 

1) The young Napoleon showed little promise

2) The royal navy attacked a city

3) All sides understood the ‘propaganda war

4) The best way to defeat Spain was to invade Argentina

5) Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition to end

6) The showdown at Waterloo was delayed due to rain

7) Waterloo was not the final battle against France

Read all: historyextra

Napoleon's Catholic marriage certificate to be sold at auction

The certificate from Napoleon Bonaparte's secret religious wedding to Josephine in 1804, eight years after their civil marriage, will go under the hammer in March, the French auction house Osenat said Monday.

The document is signed and sealed by Cardinal Joseph Fesch, who presided over the clandestine wedding that took place at the behest of Pope Pius VII as a condition for his presence at Napoleon's coronation.

It is part of a collection being sold by Christopher Forbes, a US billionaire and francophile, that mainly comprises artefacts from the reign of Napoleon's nephew and heir, Napoleon III.
Read all: telegraph

Note boasts rare signatures of naNapoleon, Josephine

Full signatures from a pair of notorious lovebirds — Napoleon and Josephine — lend an otherwise routine 19th-century French marriage contract a rare prestige among other love notes on display at a high-end jewelry and antique showcase in Florida.

Just weeks after the French Senate declared him emperor, Napoleon and Josephine de Beauharnais were witnesses to the wedding of General Pierre-Augustin Hulin, who took part in the storming of the Bastille, sparking the French Revolution.

The document also is one of the first Napoleon signed with his full name, just as a monarch might today, instead of simply writing "Bonaparte" as he had before, Lowenherz said.
Read all: mysanantonio.

Napoleon & entourage approaching StHelena.

              

Early October #1815 Admiral Cockburn & #HMSNorthumberland, with #Napoleon & entourage, is approaching #StHelena.

Le sacre de Napoléon de Jacques-Louis David

Le public admirant Le sacre de Napoléon de Jacques-Louis David au Louvre, 1810.

Malmaison

château de Malmaison ‏@museemalmaison

Le château de Malmaison

Palazzo Bonaparte

Piazza Venezia marks the physical center of Rome as well as being a square buzzing with activity and history. On the north end, where Piazza Venezia meets Via del Corso, is the building where Napoleon I’s mother Letizia Ramolino Bonaparte lived: Palazzo Bonaparte. The building was built in 1660 by Giovanni Antonio De Rossi for Marquis Giuseppe Benedetto.  After Napoleon was forced in to exile, Letizia was granted asylum in Rome by Pope Pius VII in 1815. It is said she loved to sit on the covered balcony, hidden from view, and watch the city unfold below her. Once she lost her sight her lady in waiting described the comings and goings to her. Letizia lived at Palazzo Bonaparte until her death in 1836. The building became the property of Italian insurance company Assitalia in 1972, but the name Bonaparte remains on the rooftop

François Gérard : "Marie-Laetitia Bonaparte" (vers 1804)  

St. Helena.

Even today, in spite of its isolation, St. Helena welcomes a small but regular stream of French visitors who come to see the sites linked to their country's former emperor. These include Longwood House, as well as The Briars, Bonaparte's first residence in the island, and The Valley of the Tomb, where he was buried before his remains were later repatriated. The number of Napoleon devotees making the pilgrimage to St. Helena can only be expected to increase once the island becomes more easily accessible from Europe. The Napoleonic Estates also have a peculiarity that adds to St. Helena's uniqueness: they're under direct French administration and enjoy extraterritorial status, making them French enclaves within British territory. The French flag flies over them and the French Republic maintains a consul on the island that takes care of their preservation.

edition saint-helena-napoleon

Arenenberg, beautiful pictures.

 

Really beautiful pictures on this website: timetravelturtle

Travel writer, Michael Turtle

 

The museum has taken many forms in the years since it began but most recently it has been restored to resemble how it would have looked when Hortense lived here with her son, Louis-Napoleon, who would go on to become Emperor Napoleon III in 1852.

The woman behind the current style of the Napoleon Museum is curator Christina Egli

 

 

 

More pictures on the website. Look and enjoy!

Arenenberg You Tube

Hermitage, Amsterdam

Dans la chambre de la reine Hortense de Beauharnais a Arenenberg

twitter/hortense/beauharnais

Napoleon and Josephine decided that Hortense should marry Napoleon’s brother Louis

Napoleon and Josephine decided that Hortense should marry Napoleon’s brother Louis, even though the two didn’t particularly like each other. As discussed in my post about Louis, the marriage, which took place on January 4, 1802, was miserable. Reflecting on it during his exile on St. Helena, Napoleon said:

There were faults on both sides. On the one hand, Louis was too teasing in his temper, and, on the other, Hortense was too volatile. … Hortense, the virtuous, the generous, the devoted Hortense, was not entirely faultless in her conduct towards her husband. This I must acknowledge in spite of all the affection I bore her, and the sincere attachment which I am sure she entertained for me. Though Louis’s whimsical humours were in all probability sufficiently teasing, yet he loved Hortense; and in such a case a woman should learn to subdue her own temper, and endeavour to return her husband’s attachment. Had she acted in the way most conducive to her interest, she might have avoided her late lawsuit, secured happiness to herself and followed her husband to Holland. Louis would not then have fled from Amsterdam, and I should not have been compelled to unite his kingdom to mine—a measure which contributed to ruin my credit in Europe. Many other events might also have taken a different turn. shannonselin

Wood violets were said to be a favorite of Josephine de Beauharnais.

Wood violets were said to be a favorite of Napoleon's first wife, Josephine de Beauharnais, and after her death in the early 1800s, Napoleon was found to be wearing a locket with wood violets he had taken from Josephine's grave. Read  more: victoriaadvocate

Hermitage Amsterdam en Hortus Botanicus brengen gezamenlijk een hommage aan Joséphine de Beauharnais.

De keizerin staat dit voorjaar centraal in de Amsterdamse Plantage. In dit samenwerkingsproject gaat de bezoeker mee naar het beroemde tuinpaleis van de keizerin, Château de Malmaison, net buiten Parijs.

Joséphine toverde het om tot een lusthof met een prachtige kunstcollectie en paradijselijke tuinen vol bijzondere bloemen, planten en vogels als zeldzame zwarte zwanen en struisvogels. Het was Napoleons favoriete hideaway en werd vrijwel direct na zijn nederlaag en verbanning een favoriete bestemming van de hoogste Europese adel, zoals de koning van Pruisen en niet in de laatste plaats tsaar Alexander van Rusland. Joséphine hield er haar hof en overleed er te midden van haar geliefde kunst, flora en fauna.

Hoewel de hommage een samenwerkingsverband is, besteden Hermitage Amsterdam en Hortus Botanicus ieder op een eigen manier aandacht aan Joséphine. In de Hermitage Amsterdam toont ‘Alexander, Napoleon & Joséphine. Een verhaal van vriendschap, oorlog en kunst uit de Hermitage’ hoe de Europese geschiedenis Napoleon en tsaar Alexander I verbond. Joséphine speelt in deze tentoonstelling een fascinerende rol, eerst als keizerin aan de zijde van Napoleon en later als goede vriendin van Alexander I. Zij legde een enorme kunstcollectie aan van onschatbare waarde, met onder andere Hollandse en Italiaanse meesters. Vele highlights ervan zijn te zien in de Hermitage Amsterdam.

De Hortus Botanicus vertelt met de tentoonstelling ‘Joséphine. Een keizerrijk in een tuin’ over haar andere grote passie: het verzamelen en kweken van bloemen en planten. Joséphines Château de Malmaison was 200 jaar geleden het thuis van haar kunstcollectie, maar ook van haar bijzondere planten- en bloementuinen. Deze prachtige wereld komt weer tot leven in de Hermitage en de Hortus. Een korte looproute van 300 meter verbindt beide tentoonstellingen.
Beide tentoonstellingen gaan open op 28 maart 2015 en bieden een combinatieticket voor 17,50 euro.
BRON: Persbericht Hermitage Amsterdam

Schilderij: François Flameng, Feestelijke receptie in het Château de Malmaison in 1802, ca. 1894. Olieverf op doek, 106 x 139 cm.© State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg