#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]

The Empress Eugénie Surrounded by Her Ladies in Waiting

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

Date: 1855

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Musée du Second Empire, Compiègne, France

Description

Taking its inspiration from 18th-century bucolic scenes, this monumental composition sets the sovereign and her entourage against the backdrop of a shady clearing in a forest, (evoquing certain 17th-Century compositions representing Diana and her companions such as those by Rubens or Van Loo). However, the composition is very artificial and formal. The Empress, slightly to the left of centre, is encircled by and dominates the group. To her right sits the Princesse d’Essling, chief lady in waiting, to whom she is offering some honeysuckle. To her left, is the Duchesse de Bassano, matron of honour. Before her sit the Baronne de Pierres and the Vicomtesse de Lezay-Marnésia, both ladies in waiting. In the foreground is Comtesse de Montebello; to the right are three other ladies in waiting, the Baronne de Malaret, the Marquise de Las Marismas and the Marquise de la Tour-Maubourg. In striking contrast to the rustic setting, the ladies in waiting rival each other in vestimentary luxury. Each one is wearing her finest ball gown, thus giving the painter a pretext for a virtuoso display of material painting, even to the detriment of the likenesses. In fact the real subject of this glorification of the crinoline is the silk, tulle, muslin, taffeta, lace and ribbons. Only the simplicity of the jewelry seems to match the pastoral setting.

[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.

[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.”

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Eugenie de Montijo, French Empress, 1850-55.

[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.

[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

[queenalexandraofdenmark]

Any books to recommend about Empress Eugenie of France?

"Eugenie: The Empress and her Empire" :)

Book overview:

"From 1853 to 1870 Eugénie de Montijo was Empress of the French, sharing the Second Empire with her husband Napoleon III.

The last woman to reign over France, she personifies the allure glimpsed in Winterhalter's portraits and the music of Jacques Offenbach.

It was 'eighteen years of self-indulgence, folly and wild gaiety, of love affairs and unbelievable elegance', a survivor wistfully recalled. 'For a short time, too short a time, it seemed as if we were glittering ghosts from the splendours of the eighteenth century.' In many ways the Second Empire was a final flicker of the ancient regime.

This meticulously researched portrait reveals the empress as a nineteenth century fashion icon who possessed an intelligent and politically shrewd mind, whose splendour faded from view along with the Second Empire."

[warwickroyals]

You did least favourite tiara, what about favourite tiaras?

Great idea! I think I'll prick my favourite tiaras from each country, and no commentary just so that this post doesn't ramble forever and ever. Just know that these are the ones that I like for either aesthetic or historical purposes. I'd say the best collections go to the British, Swedish, and Spanish in that order. Out of the fake monarchies Greece has some bangers in there:

Belgium 🇧🇪 - Queen Astrid of Belgium's Nine Provinces Tiara (as a bandeau)

Brunei 🇧🇳 - Anisha Isa Kalebic's Diamond Tiara

Denmark 🇩🇰 - Princess Louise of the Netherlands' Pearl Poiré Tiara

Egypt 🇪🇬 - Queen Nazli of Egypt’s Diamond Tiara

France 🇫🇷 - Empress Josephine’s Cameo Tiara (it's in the Swedish vault but it's French in every other way)

Germany 🇩🇪 - The Prussian tiara (it's of German origin but is currently with the Spanish due to royal intermarrying)

Greece 🇬🇷 - Khedive of Egypt Tiara

Italy 🇮🇹 - Queen Margherita of Italy's Pearl & Diamond Tiara

Iran 🇮🇷 - Empress Farah of Iran’s Turquoise Tiara

Japan 🇯🇵 - Imperial Chrysanthemum Tiara

Jordan 🇯🇴 - Queen Noor's Sunburst Tiara

Lesotho 🇱🇸 - 'Masenate Mohato Seeiso's wedding tiara

Liechtenstein 🇱🇮 - Princess Maria Kinsky's Honeysuckle Tiara

Luxembourg 🇱🇺 - Grand Duchess Marie Adélaïde of Luxembourg's Sapphire Tiara

Monaco 🇲🇨 - Princess Charlotte of Monaco’s Pearl Drop Tiara

The Netherlands 🇳🇱 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands's Stuart Diamond Tiara

Norway 🇳🇴 - Princess Ingeborg of Sweden's Pearl Circle Tiara

Russia 🇷🇺 - Grand Duchess Vladimir Tiara (of Russian origin but is with the Brits)

Spain 🇪🇸 - Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain's Fleur de Lys Tiara

Sweden 🇸🇪 - Nine-Prong Tiara

United Kingdom 🇬🇧 - Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara

BONUS - The Greville Emerald Kokoshnik 🇬🇧

BONUS - The Swedish Aquamarine Kokoshnik 🇸🇪

BONUS - Queen Desiree of Sweden’s Ruby Parure Tiara 🇩🇰

[empiredesimparte]

Can't wait for my beloved, and now for sure hot blonde, Empress Eugenie of the French to be born after this damn coronation and wedding season is over----

Your sweet dream 😆 I'm in the process of testing for the next generation Simparte kids, so I guess curiosity is growing now! I'm still very hesitant 😌 there are lots of interesting genetic results

I don't think I'll be revealing their faces publicly (for the sake of suspense, I don't like spoilers), but if anyone's interested I'll be able to do it privately.

I hope you enjoy the next generation (Louis and his family). It's strange for me to be working on it after all this time for Louis and Hortense!