I HAVE A LOT OF CATCHING UP TO DO.......

The question you could well ask is would I have gone to see « Josephine » alone? The answer is « probably no ». I don’t say « definitely no » as my knowledge of French history is lacking and perhaps I would have gone alone to learn. Going with Marielle was another matter. I talked about the exhibition to a friend today who said that he had been disappointed in the lack of pieces displayed…..on the contrary. I found the setting ideal, spaced out and I was eager to learn. Thanks to Marielle, I did.

This exhibition has been put together for the bicentennial of her death and is the first one exclusively dedicated to her in France. Now I discover how much she left in the field of arts, leaving an imprint of femininity on the first military and powerful Europe. I finally got my Napoleons in order too thanks to Marielle and to Josephine. 

I had no idea that she had been born in Martinique in 1763. 





Nor that she had married a Viscount Alexandre de Beauharnais at 16. She gave birth to two children - Eugène and Hortense. (Am glad they are no longer fashionable names, although I know Marielle likes Eugène). The marriage was not a happy one. She returned to her home and then came back to Paris but her husband was arrested under the Reign of Terror as was Josephine. He met his fate at the guillotine. She escaped and because of her introduction to  figures in the political and financial worlds, she met a young and ambitious general, Napoleon Bonaparte in 1796. She married him the same year. 



Josephine was a fashion addict, jewelry too and collected art, played music - a harp and even a guitar. Apparently she introduced the first black swans from Australia into her botanical collection. Even kangaroos - which I doubt a bit. They were probably wallabies. Josephine was on display. There were enough portraits in the exhibition to confirm this. Surprisingly though her jewelry in the early stages was not so extravagant and even the ring for her marriage was as simple as mine had been. 


Fashion

Her gardens.....


The Tiara for her coronation

One of the many silk dresses

rather a nice dressing table



But no, she could not have children with Napoleon. Ah, the mysteries of conception.  She was young enough but alas he divorced her and married Marie Louise of Austria. Napoléon only had one child with Marie-Louise (“l’Aiglon”), and “officially” another illegitimate one, with a Polish mistress, Maria Walewska.

I doubt if she had had any political baring on Napoleon but her fashion and artistic influence certainly made her a fondly remembered « Queen » of France.

Well, I learnt a little, didn’t I?

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