This charming lady is Hortense de Beauharnais. Her father, a member of an old aristocratic family, had been decapitated during the French Revolution. Her mother's second husband was Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1802, Hortense, then 19, married her step-father's brother, Louis. In 1806, Louis Bonaparte was placed on the Dutch throne and Hortense became Holland's first queen. Yet she rarely came to the Netherlands and the marriage was far from happy. This portrait was painted in Paris. It was intended for the Royal Palace on Amsterdam's Dam Square, which Louis made his residence. In fact the King never took delivery of the painting. It remained in the painter's possession and was later sold with the rest of his estate.
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python_regius) wrote2009-05-09 12:12 pm
