empirearchives

[empirearchives]

Photograph taken c. 1850-1860 of a painted portrait of Napoleon. If Napoleon had still been alive when this photograph was taken, he would have been between 81 to 91 years old.

Daguerreotype by Southworth and Hawes

Source: MFA Boston

[empirearchives]

a British perspective on Junot

"One of Bonaparte's relations had formed an attachment to Junot, who was one of the handsomest men in France; Junot was immediately after sent to Portugal; and upon his defeats there he was disgraced publicly by Bonaparte, and killed himself, it is believed, in a fit of despair."

source: Archibald Alison, 1816

What's interesting about this summary of Junot's downfall is that it is the first publication I could find that explicitly mentions suicide - the French publications of the time are ambiguous about what happened to him. But this article was written based on gossip picked up in France in 1814-15, and so it was certainly known to the public that Junot had committed suicide.

[empirearchives]

i like when they make him look like this

[empirearchives]

Sorry if you've been asked this before but how did your obsession with junot started? Curious how u met ur historical blorbo..

At first I was only really into Napoleon, but as I learnt more about him I learnt more about his friends. I'm pretty sure my Junot obsession started when I saw a post by @empirearchives with a quote from Junot's last letter to Napoleon, which I thought was very poetic so I clicked on the link to the source, which was the 'Napoleonic Friendship' article (aka the Napjuno Bible).

Reading that article made me interested in Junot, and so I read lots of Junot posts on Tumblr to find more about him, and everything I read only made me more interested in him. I was very depressed at the time (and still today but now I've got meds) and so I found him relatable, and I found his whole personality very endearing. (contrary to what some might think, I don't just like him because he's pretty; I actually didn't know what he looked like until after I'd read up about him.)

Also, he's quite similar to characters from the books and movies I enjoy, and I like tragedy. He sort of fits into the middle of the Venn diagram of my favourite things.

[empirearchives]

hi i went to london today . and i saw loads of napoleon related stuff!! heres some of it

not napoleon but still napoleon related!! ^_^

[empirearchives]

About Napoleon son Alexandre Walewski, why do you Believe Marie’s old husband Count Anastase Walewski recognised the child as his?

The only things I can think of is maybe Napoleon commanded him too as the “emperor” and well who’s going to reject the emperors son , Or Anastase was old and already had trueborn older children from other marriages so he didn’t care, Or just embarrassment on his part idk.

Cause she divorced him anyway like right after so…. lol.

I don’t know, but he was pretty old. He was in his seventies during the whole thing. And did he really have any other choice but to accept? Idk.

I always imagined his reaction to the affair and getting a new “son” being like:

[empirearchives]

Prelude to a Concert (detail)

Marguerite Gérard, c. 1810, Napoleonic era

[empirearchives]

To Parisians there was probably nothing exceptional about Thursday, 21 October, in the year of grace 1784. Did poetry lovers notice an ode published on the 19th in the Journal de Paris, celebrating the achievements of the intrepid Montgolfiers, ancestors of our cosmonauts? The poet saw the balloonists as rivals to “the lofty eagle”: “Man soars to the ranks of the Gods / To make the world tributary / To the daring of his genius...”

His readers could not guess that fifteen years later the young man who came to Paris that day would be hailed in similar fulsome terms. It was in fact on 21 October 1784, that young Bonaparte, then 15, with four of his comrades, escorted by Father Berton, set foot for the first time in Paris.

— Maurice Guerrini, Napoleon and Paris: 30 Years of History

[empirearchives]

Dress

c. 1810

white silk net, embroidered with straw and yellow beads

Victoria and Albert Museum

[empirearchives]

« Tous les arts ont produit des merveilles: l'art de gouverner n'a produit que des monstres. » - St Just, Discours sur la Constitution à donner à la France (13 avril 1793)

"All arts have produced miracles, while the art of governing has produced nothing but monsters."

[empirearchives]

[…] and in 1828 the soldiers transferred to the Lithuanian corps still believed that [tsar] Alexander is somewhere beyond the seas with Napoleon. One could use this tale as if it was true, for many soldiers believed it deeply.

[Memoirs of Andrzej Przyałgowski, from tome 1 of Pamiętniki Polskie, Paris 1844]

Aaaaaand here we have a group of Polish, Lithuanian and Russian soldiers still shipping Napoleon and Alexander, 7 and 3 years after their deaths.

[empirearchives]

Don't forget to send the Emperor some Parmesan cheese, as there is a shortage here and the Emperor often asks for it.

Joséphine to her son Eugène de Beauharnais in a postscript to a letter sent from Marrac, 31 May 1808 (that would be during Napoleon’s take-over of Spain).

[empirearchives]

Town dress with chemisette owned by Empress Josephine, First Empire

From the Chateau de Malmaision Costume Collection app:

“This high-waisted dress with its square, low-cut neckline and decorated with white embroidered flowers and leaves is typical of the fashion at the start of the First Empire. To conceal the low neckline, it could be worn with a chemisette which was slipped inside the dress. This one is in white muslin, embroidered with a sprinkling of flowers and embellished with a ruché trim. This outfit comes from the family of Madame Poyard who looked after the Empress’s wardrobe after 1809.”

[empirearchives]

Duality

[empirearchives]

Name me one good thing that came out of the Russian campaign. Like seriously just one

[empirearchives]

“Like all men, he desired happiness, but he had found only glory.”

— Napoleon Bonaparte, in his unfinished, autobiographical novella Clisson and Eugénie. (via valinaraii)

[empirearchives]