#empress eugenie of the french

[archduchessofnowhere]

I bring you not very good news: Nancy Goldstone wrote a double biography on Elisabeth and Empress Eugenie, to be published on February 6 of next year.

After reading @vivelareine's review of Goldstone's book on Marie Antoinette I simply do not trust this author is a good researcher, and while I won't judge this book until it's out, I can't help but being very wary already. The synopsis alone doesn't give me much hope:

From the acclaimed author of In the Shadow of the Empress comes the thrilling chronicle of two of the most influential and glamorous women in nineteenth-century Europe—Elisabeth, empress of Austria, and Eugénie, empress of France—and their efforts to rule amid the scandal, intrigue, tragedy, and violence of their era.

When they married Emperors Franz Joseph and Napoleon III, respectively, Elisabeth of Austria and Eugénie of France became two of the most famous women on the planet. Not only were they both young and beautiful—becoming cultural and fashion icons of their time—but they played a pivotal role in ruling their realms during a tempestuous era characterized by unprecedented political and technological change.

Fearless, adventurous, and independent, Elisabeth and Eugénie represented a new kind of empress—one who rebelled against tradition and anticipated and embraced modern values. Yet both women endured hardship in their private and public lives. Elisabeth was plagued by a mother-in-law who snatched her infant children away and undermined her authority at court. Eugénie’s husband was an infamous philanderer who could not match the military prowess of his namesake. Between them, Elisabeth and Eugénie were personally involved in every major international confrontation in their turbulent century, which witnessed thrilling technological advances, as well as revolutions, assassinations, and wars.

With her characteristic in-depth research and jump-off-the-page writing, Nancy Goldstone brings to life these two remarkable women, as Europe goes through the convulsions that led up to the international landscape we recognize today.

You see, I don't think it's crazy to pair up Elisabeth and Eugenie in a biography if your focus is going to be their queenship. Because they were very different as empresses, and I'd love a comparative study on why and how was that possible. Yet the synopsis is implying they were similar? How was Elisabeth personally involved in every major international confrontation? She was only personally involved in the Compromise, every other event she only reacted to (if even). Meanwhile Eugenie actively tried to participate in the politics of France and influence her husband (successfully in many cases, I believe).

The "domineering mother-in-law" part also worries me. Unsere liebe Sisi's been out since 2008, there's no excuse to not give Sophie a more nuanced portrayal.

But well, authors usually don't write the synopsis of their books, so I won't read more into it than what I've done already. I truly hope this biography isn't terrible because we don't need to add one more book to the already giant pile of books about Elisabeth that are filled with myths and misinformation.

[wardrobeoftime]

Sisi (2021) + Costumes

Eugénie de Montijo, The Empress of the French’s golden & white dress in Season 03, Episode 01.

[queenfredegund]

Women in History Month (insp) | Week 3: Consorts and concubines

[roehenstart]

Empress Eugenie by Claude Marie Dubufe.

[fashionsfromhistory]

Day & Evening Bodices owned by Empress Eugenie of France

1850s-1870s

The Bowes Museum via Facebook

[royalty-nobility]

Empress Eugenie Surrounded by her Ladies in Waiting

Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805-1873)

Date: 1855

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Château de Compiègne, Compiègne

Description:

The painting features depictions of the Empress of France, Eugénie de Montijo, and eight of her ladies-in-waiting. The painting was displayed at the Palace of Fontainebleau during the regime of Eugénie's husband, Napoleon III. After Eugénie's exile to England, the painting was given to her, and later displayed in the entrance to her house at Farnborough Hill. It is currently on display at the Château de Compiègne.

The scene, bathed in a cold, bright light, depicts Eugénie de Montijo, Empress of the French for two years, surrounded by eight ladies-in-waiting in a fictional country setting. She is represented with a crown of honeysuckle on her head and a branch of the same plant in her hand, acting as a scepter. She slightly dominates the other characters. She is facing the Grand Mistress of her household, on her right, Anne Debelle, Princess of Essling (1802-1887), wife of François Victor Massena, 3rd Duke of Rivoli. To her left stands her lady-in-waiting, Pauline van der Linden d'Hooghvorst, Duchess of Bassano (1814-1867), wife of Napoléon Maret. Below are the ladies of the palace, who followed the empress daily: on the left, Jane Thorne, baroness of Pierres (1821-1873), wife of Stéphane de Pierres and Louise Poitelon du Tarde, viscountess of Lezay-Marnésia (1826-1891), wife of Joseph-Antoine-Albert de Lezay-Marnesia; in the center, Adrienne de Villeneuve-Bargemont, countess of Montebello (1826-1870), wife of Gustave Olivier Lannes de Montebello, and on the right, Anne Eve Mortier de Trévise, marquise of Latour-Maubourg (1829-1900), wife of César de Faÿ de La Tour-Maubourg, Claire Emilie MacDonnel, Marquise de Las Marismas de Guadalquivir (1817-1905), wife of Alexandre Aguado Moreno, and behind them, standing, Nathalie de Ségur, Baroness of Malaret (1827-1910), wife of Paul Martin d'Ayguesvives, and daughter of the Countess of Ségur).

[galleryofart]

Empress Eugénie in the Guise of Queen Marie Antoinette

Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805–1873)

Genre: Portrait

Date: 1854

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Eugenia de Guzmán, countess of Teba, married Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte III in 1853, and Winterhalter was one of several artists commissioned to create portraits of the new Empress. In the 1850s, photography had not yet become a means of disseminating a sitter’s likeness, and painted portraiture had long been an instrument of politics. In 1854, Winterhalter created a small-scale portrait in which Eugénie is fashioned in tribute to French Queen Marie Antoinette. In this work, Eugénie’s auburn hair is powdered, her olive skin is lightened to a translucent white that resembles porcelain, and her dress references a style once favored by the doomed eighteenth-century French Queen. In this way, the Spanish-born Empress was recast as an iconic French beauty.

As the foreign-born wife of Napoleon III, Eugenie needed to assert her allegiance to the French people. In commissioning this small-scale work by Winterhalter in the year that followed her marriage and adopting a style of dress associated with Marie Antoinette, Eugenie was able to articulate her French identity in service of the newly restored monarchy. The Empress must have been pleased with the work since it hung in a prominent position in her salon de dames of her principal residence for many years. In the years that followed, Winterhalter painted several other portraits of Eugenie, but the best-known, is the large-scale work of Eugenie with her ladies in waiting.

[artemlegere]

The Empress Eugénie, Wearing the Sash of the Order of Queen Maria Luisa 

(Eugénie de Montijo, 1826–1920, Condesa de Teba)

Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1871)

Date: 1854

Media: Oil on Canvas

Musée d’Orsay

Eugénie de Montijo (1826-1920) Empress of the French

Eugénie de Montijo (1826-1920) was the youngest daughter of the Count of Teba and niece of the Count of Montijo, whose name her father obtained and by which she is improperly known today. After her marriage to Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, she became Empress of the French until 1873.

Her father supported the French during the Napoleonic Wars and as such was an afrancesado. Afrancesado was the name given to people who had collaborated with the French authorities during the occupation of Spain by Napoleon’s armies (1808-1814), unwelcome among the Spanish people and whose family was forced to seek refuge in Paris in 1834 at the time of the Carlist Wars. Eugénie received most of her education here, surrounded by an enlightened society influenced notably by Prosper Mérimée (1803-1870) a French writer, historian and archaeologist..

Empress of the French Until the Fall of the French Second Empire

In 1849 she made the acquaintance of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, President of the Republic, at the residence of his cousin Princess Mathilde. Princess Mathilde (1820-1904) was the cousin of Louis-Napoleon, and was initially engaged to the latter before marrying Anatole Demidoff, Prince of San Donato, from whom she was authorised to separate in 1847... Seduced by her beauty and personality, he diligently courted her before asking for her hand in 1853, when he had become Emperor of the French. The wedding was held in the Tuileries and Notre-Dame de Paris on 29 and 30 January 1853, and the Empress became the hostess and finest ornament of a particularly brilliant Imperial Court. In 1856 their only son was born, Louis-NapoleonLouis-Napoleon Bonaparte (1856 - 1879) received a military education from a young age. After the Commune, he was exiled to England with the Imperial family., who was given the title Prince Imperial (1856-1879).

After the fall of the Empire in 1870 and the death of Napoleon III in 1873, the Empress was sent into a long exile spent between England, Spain and southern France.

[theeugeniedemontijo]

haven't been thinking of my beloved eugenie in while now but she's still so precious to me

[valkyries-things]

EUGÉNIE DE MONTIJO // EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH

“She was Empress of the French from her marriage to Napoleon III on 30 January 1853 until the Emperor was overthrown on 4 September 1870. From 28 July to 4 September 1870, she was the de facto head of state of France. As Empress, she used her influence to champion "authoritarian and clerical policies"; her involvement in politics earned her much criticism from contemporaries. After the fall of the Empire, she, her husband and their son lived in exile in England. She outlived both of them.”

[corbenic]

"On the Prince Imperial's tomb lies a wreath of white immortelles given by Queen Victoria, and a bunch of purple heather recently laid there by Princess Beatrice. It had been gathered on the common by the Princess when she was the guest of the Empress Eugénie." - Jane T. Stoddart, The Life of the Empress Eugenie, published 1906

Immortelles, incidentally, are named as the favorite flower of Hortense de Beauharnais (stepdaughter and sister-in-law of Napoleon Bonaparte, mother of Napoleon III, grandmother of the Prince Imperial) in Alan Strauss-Schom's biography of Napoleon III, The Shadow Emperor. Immortelles were also placed at the foot of Napoleon III's coffin, and used to decorate the church gate for his funeral, according to The Graphic newspaper's account of events.

[jewellery-box]

Evening Dress, ca.1865, designed by dressmaker Madame Vignon of Paris. Silk.

The Cohasset Historical Society.

Maria Barnes Hooper, wearer

Maria Barnes was born in 1827 in Hingham, Mass., to parents Ensign Barnes Jr. and Deborah Lincoln. The Lincoln family has notable members of American History, including Major General Benjamin Lincoln, who served under George Washington in the Revolutionary War and received British commander Lord Charles Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown, and Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States.

Maria married John Sewell Hooper, a stationary merchant, in Hingham in 1852. The Hoopers applied for a passport in 1865 that shows the couple and their young son traveling to France. Family legend states that Maria purchased this dress for $100 (about $1,800 today) from Madame Vignon, a renowned Parisian dressmaker. Vignon also created the wedding dress and trousseau for the French Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III.

[wardrobeoftime]

Sisi (2021) + Costumes

Eugénie de Montijo, The Empress of the French’s creme & white dress in Season 02, Episode 01.

[the-paintrist]

Eugenie Servieres - Maleck-Adhel attendant Mathilde au tombeau de Josselin de Montmorency - 1820

oil on canvas,

Brest’s Museum of Fine Arts, France

Maleck-Adhel waiting for Mathilde at the tomb of Josselin de Montmorency'. The scene is inspired by Sophie Cottin's novel, Mathilde or Memoirs from the History of the Crusades (1805). Mathilde of England asked her brother, King Richard the Lionheart, for the key to the mausoleum of Josselin de Montmorency to meet her lover, Maleck-Adhel, brother of Saladin. Here we see Maleck-Adhel, dressed in oriental fashion, waiting for Mathilde in the dark mausoleum, leaning on the tomb.

Eugénie Honorée Marguerite Servières, née Charen (1786 – 20 March 1855) was a French painter in the Troubadour style. She specialized in genre period paintings.

Portrait of Eugénie Servières by Jean-Baptiste Wicar 1810

In 1807 she married the playwright Joseph Servières. She trained with her stepfather, Guillaume Guillon-Lethière, Director of the French Academy in Rome.

Beginning in 1808, she exhibited her paintings, on a wide variety of subjects, in several venues. In 1808 and 1817, The Paris Salon awarded her medals. In 1825, she displayed two works at the Salon in Lille.

Her paintings include Hagar in the Desert, Lancelot and Genevieve, Louis XIII and Mlle. de Lafayette, Alain Chartier and Marguerite d'Écosse, Valentine de Milan, Desdemona Singing the Romance of the Willow, and Blanche de Castille Delivering the Prisoners of Châtenay.

Her Mathilde converts Malek-Adhel to Christianity (1812, from a novel about the Crusades by Sophie Cottin) was purchased by the Empress Marie Louise for her personal collection, while the evocative Inez de Castro and her Children at the feet of the King of Portugal is preserved at the Trianon Palace at Versailles, near Paris.

Most of her works were personally commissioned, and very few are in museums. She had several students.

[gemville]

Emerald and Diamond Tiara by Bapst, Circa 1820

Worn by Various French Royalty, Including Empress Eugenie

On Permanent Exhibition @ The Louvre Museum

Source: davidwarrenchristies @ Instagram

[royal-confessions]

“Surprised that Empress Eugenie isn't more talked about. She basically supported a lot of major French luxury brands today when they were starting their brands like Guerlain, LV and Cartier. The woman was so influential in the fashion world.” - Submitted by Anonymous