#murat portrait

[ic-napology]

Randomly remembered about Murat's cuteness in The Coronation of Napoleon. It's just me or he's kinda smiling?

[hoppityhopster23]

Genetics can be a fascinating thing. I find great joy in looking at pictures of people and comparing them to photos or paintings of their ancestors, mostly to see what features remained in the family. It is also a great way to know what features on a person are accurate in paintings since oftentimes they can be tweaked to the person's benefit. After talking with @yaggy031910, I discovered some examples that are worth posting about.

The first of the two examples is that of Marshal Murat and his Granddaughter, Anna.

What stands out to me the most between these two is how alike their eyes are. they're almost the same shape. Their cheeks and mouths are similar too, making it hard for me to doubt that they are directly related.

The second one, and by far my favorite of the two, is between Marshal Soult and his Granddaughter Geneviève.

If I were to imagine a female version of Soult, at least a slightly older version of him than the one above, an image very close to Geneviève comes to mind. They are so alike that it scares me a little. It's easier to say what isn't similar between their faces than to say what's is.

[clove-pinks]

Whoops, maybe too much zoom on this picture of Lefebvre, but at least you can see him in detail! I want a good crop of this painting for @napoleonic-sexyman-tournament

Intriguingly, and unusual for the time, it was made by a female artist, Césarine Davin.

[phatburd]

Bessières and the 600,000+ Franc Question

For @josefavomjaaga

While going over sources and material related to Jean-Baptiste Bessières, there's one thing that keeps twigging my journalist Spidey sense, and I don't like that.

Always, without fail, it's presented as a fait accompli that Bessières blew anywhere between 600,000 to one million francs on his mistress, a Paris opera dancer named Virginie. The fact he had a mistress isn't actually unusual by itself, when compared to the affairs his peers carried on. The exceptions were probably the Davouts and the Lefebvres.

Furthermore, his wife, Marie-Jeanne, discovered the affair after his death when his personal affects were returned to her from the battlefield.

The massive debts the Marshal left behind bankrupted his family, necessitating that Marie-Jeanne into selling their estate, Chateau de Grignon, to cover some of it. Napoleon also paid down some of Bessières' debts and set up a yearly pension for Marie-Jeanne her son. According to some accounts, she struggled financially for the rest of her life.

This is what I don't like about it, and why it doesn't completely pass the sniff test.

I accept that Bessières died flat broke and in debt. In debt to whom, however? Who were his creditors?

When did he meet his mistress? Was that fortune spent over a period of years, or in a fairly short time?

Even as a Marshal of France he had to pay his officers out of his own pocket, and provide his own carriages and some supplies on campaign. If he was flat broke, how did he continue to pay his officers?

Bessières was also bad with money to begin with. He was known to be generous and charitable, to the point where he'd be giving away money to anyone whom he thought was more in need than he was with it. Allegedly, Virginie was in debt herself, and he paid down all of them out of the apparent goodness of his heart.

(This raises even more questions. Was she a gold digger, was she blackmailing him, was he totally besotted with her that he didn't realize what the hell he was doing? Was he just lonely? Did they have genuine feelings for one another? There's a lot of there there, but no real answers.)

My conclusion is, no, Bessières did not spend 600,000 to one million francs on his mistress. Her presence, however, was not helpful to his situation.

He paid down Virginie's debts, however much they were. Being terrible with money, he kept putting himself in a financial hole, and then he kept digging. The upkeep on Chateau de Grignon had to be ridiculous. He still had to pay his officers and his staff. He was probably borrowing and burning through money and racking up the debt. Like that meme goes, "This is fine" while everything's burning down around him. A bit like using a credit card to pay down a credit card, as one might do in the modern parlance.

(His financial problems may have contributed to his increasing depression towards the end of his life as well. Was someone blackmailing him with his debts? Another interesting question that can never be adequately addressed.)

From what I've gathered, he hid all his problems from pretty much everyone. Even Napoleon seemed caught off guard with how bad Bessières' finances were. I argue that the 600,000 to one million francs he owed upon his death were cumulative and not to a single person as the historical narrative wants people to believe.

It seems a small thing to be annoyed with, but there seems to be more than a bit of misogyny to lay all of Bessières' troubles on a single woman as the historical narrative seems to want to do.

Another thing ... if Bessières burned a lot of his recent correspondence towards the end of his life, what exactly was the evidence Marie-Jeanne discovered as proof of the affair. How did she prove it? Did other people know about the affair and kept her in the dark? If so, who was that?

In the novel, "The Battle" by Patrick Rimbaud, a semi-fictionalized account of the Battle of Aspern-Essling, Rimbaud's characterization of Bessières has him wear two gold lockets under his Marshal's uniform. One for Marie-Jeanne, the other for Virginie. I don't know if Rimbaud based that on an actual account, or if it was something he made up. I have a lot of problems with that book though, probably because the translation seems somewhat robotic and not great. It's an interesting idea, however, and maybe worth keeping around as a headcanon.

Did Madame Bessières struggle financially for the rest of her life afterwards? Possibly. I don't have enough information to make a conclusion there, but it's not impossible. She did continue to faithfully visit his tomb for years after his death.

TL;DR Bessières died broke and in debt but it wasn't all because of his mistress. If someone else has something to the contrary, I'd love to read it.

[empirearchives]

Portrait of Caroline Bonaparte Murat, Queen of Naples, c. 1812

Attributed to Étienne-Charles Leguay

The Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius can be seen in the background of this portrait of Napoleon’s sister.

(Philadelphia Museum of Art)

[horizongirls]

Captivating loneliness

[suburbanbeatnik]

Happy (belated) birthday! I hope you enjoy the book!!

LOOK WHAT JUST ARRIVED!!!!!! And right on my birthday! Can't wait to read both of these!

@joachimnapoleon @suburbanbeatnik

[ravewing]

apparently napoleon hated murats mustache so much that he ordered it to be omitted from portraits. i think he was just a hater bc murats mustache looked fantastic

[ripstefano]

Portrait of Joachim Murat (1767-1815), his wife, Caroline Bonaparte (1782-1839) and their family, with a view of Naples beyond (1811)

Guillaume Descamps (French, 1779 - 1858)

What a lovely family, I sure hope he doesn���t side with the wrong political ally instead of maintaining his neutrality.

[resplendentoutfit]

Flowers in her Hair

Flowers were and continue to be a natural and beautiful style choice for women's hair.

The Regency era was a time of intense focus on the heads of women and girls. Hats and bonnets in many styles, headbands or "bandeaux", elaborate hairstyles, and flowers, of course! Flowers alone or as decorative elements to hats and bonnets, as well as various combinations of flowers, headbands, and hair jewelry.

Zacarías González Velázquez (Spanish, ) • Manuela González Velázquez tocando el piano • 1820

Louis-Léopold Boilly (French, 1761-1845) •Portrait of Baroness de Mesgrigny née Berthelot de Rambuteau • Early 1800s

Unknown artist • Portrait of Elizabeth Patterson • Early 1800s

Jean Dubois (1789–1849) • Portrait of Amélie Dubois • 1821

Henri Lehmann (French, 1814-1882) • Faustine Léo • 1842

Unknown artist • Portrait (believed to be Caroline Bonaparte Murat) • c. 1800

Left: François Pascal Simon Gérard • Portrait de jeune femme (Believed to be the Duchesse Marie-Madeleine de Bassano) • c. 1815

Right: Julie Hugo (1797–1865) • Portrait de Zoé Jacqueline Duvidal de Montferrier • 1814

[phatburd]

I've started a joke RP blog for Joachim Murat, found at @your-dandy-king!

Magnifique! Look at what @armagnac-army’s ADC has gifted me! A portrait of yours truly!

Aren’t I lovely? 😘. And handsome. And magnificent.

[napoleonic-sexyman-tournament]

Pyotr Bagration

a. “From what I’ve read, he was a shy sweetheart outside of war, and an absolutely badass during battle. Like- it was partially that shyness that got him caught up in his less than favorable marriage. Also, have you seen his portrait by George Dawes?! It makes me swoon at the sight of it.”

b. “The best, the sexiest and certainly the greatest NOSE in the Russian army and perhaps all armies of that period. Noseys of Napoleonic era, beware! Believed to be a target of Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna's affections, a soldier's soldier celebrated for his courage and spirit, respected even by Napoleon and widely beloved… with the noted exceptions of his own wife and one Barclay de Tolly.”

c. “His sideburns and his nose”

Joachim Murat:

a. “Serving cunt and cake (seriously, look up his Hussar portrait)”

b. “see: any portrait of him. dat ass in dat hussar's uniform.”

c. “He is the First Horseman of France, he is a Grand Admiral who can’t fuckin sail a ship. He allegedly had “For France and For The Ladies” on his sword. He was often called “Beau Sabreur” which some will tell you means Dashing Swordsman. He looked after his appearance, getting a servant to help curl those locks around his fingers and designing so many uniforms - he had the fashion game! And when he died he asked his firing squad to aim at the heart and spare the face, because he knew he was a sexyman to the end.”

[joachimnapoleon]

…Murat is not truly known even by his compatriots, even to the greatest number of his companions in arms. His story as it is found in the writings with which we are inundated, and as it spread among the people, is practically a fable or a romance. It appears that the imagination of our century also wanted to create a new Roland alongside another Charlemagne. We meet more people inclined to believe that his sword, like Durandal, could cut giants or rocks in two, than disposed to persuade themselves that he knew how to make himself loved through the sweet virtues of a good king, and that he applied himself in ten years, with constancy, to making the happiness of the peoples he governed.

-Jean-Michel Agar, Count of Mosbourg

A great many myths have grown up around Caroline, chiefly because the rabid Bonapartists could never forgive her for betraying Napoleon in 1814, and the rabid royalists were out to prove how immoral, disgraceful, and extravagant the Bonapartes had been. These myths have been perpetuated by later historians until the general picture has been distorted out of all recognition.

-Joan Bear, Caroline Murat (1972).

Tell the whole truth, it alone can win a lasting trust; the heart of man has many contrasts, and it is often these apparently incompatible opposites which give to portraits the stamp of plausibility.

-Caroline Murat to the Count of Mosbourg, 4 September 1838.

***

Happy birthday to my favorite Napoleonic couple, both of whom happened to be born on the 25th of March (Murat in 1767, Caroline in 1782).

[trauma-and-truffles]

After the Cake Incident with Marshal Lannes, My assistant, Mlle. Hopster has been telling me to make a blog myself. I finally gave into her pestering.

I'll probably make a better introduction at a later date, as by then I'll have a better gist of Tumblr.

I am Baron Dominique-Jean Larrey, Surgeon to Emperor Napoleons Imperial Guard. Feel free to ask whatever you like.

-Larrey

( This blog is run by @hoppityhopster23) (Disclaimers: This blog does not provide professional medical Advice, nor am i a professional historian. I'm just well read about the history of medicine and enjoy reading about Larrey) ------------------

Tags: Responses from the the Baron - answers to any asks.

Conversations with the assistant - Conversations with my time traveler assistant. shes the one who convinced me to create this. shes also young, sometimes foolish, and likes to give people bad ideas.

Portraits of the Doctor - Images of me.

Comments from the Assistant - self explanatory

-------------------

Fellow Soldiers and marshals, etc (personal notes below):

Marshals Other Military Staff Royals Other

@armagnac-army - My Dear Friend Lannes, Marshal of France, Prince of Siewierz, and Duke of Montebello.

@murillo-enthusiast - Jean-de-Dieu Soult, Marshal of France and Duke of Dalmatia. (I'm pretty sure he just tolerates me.)

@le-brave-des-braves - Michel Ney, Marshal of France, Prince de la Moskowa, and Duke of Elchingen. (He's very helpful, And I am grateful.)

@your-dandy-king - Joachim Murat, Marshal of France and King of Naples.

@chicksncash - Andre Massena; Marshal of France,  Duke of Rivoli, and Prince of Essling.

@your-staff-wizard - Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Marshal of France, Prince of Neuchatel, Valangin and Wagram, and technically my boss.

@perdicinae-observer - Louis Nicolas Davout, Prince of Eckmühl, Duke of Auerstadt.

@bow-and-talon - Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr, Marquis of Gouvion-Saint-Cyr, and a man I respect for giving the us Medical staff needed in life.

@general-junot -  Duke of Abrantes, and General of the French army.

@askgeraudduroc - Also My good friend, Grand Marshal of the palace, Duke of Frioul, and head of the Emperors household.

@generaldesaix - One of my closest Friends. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time together in life. nut now we do.

@messenger-of-the-battlefield - Marcellin Marbot, an aide to an assortment of Marshals, and a man I met a few times in life.

@askjackiedavid - Jacques Louis David, neoclassical painter.

@carolinemurat - Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, and sister of the Emperor.

@alexanderfanboy - Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France.

@rosie-of-beauharnais - Josephine, the Empress of France.

@the-blessed-emperor - Alexander I, Tsar of Russia.

[ic-napology]

Lannes, I would have never thought to see you stealing from Murat's wardrobe!

there is no way that this is Lannes, I don't understand... someone help 😭

[empirearchives]

Portrait of Mme Marjolin, née Duval, c. 1800s

By Henriette Lorimier, French Artist

About the Artist:

Around 1800, more and more women took part in the French artistic life. Henriette Lorimier was a popular portraitist in Paris during the Napoleonic era. In 1805 Caroline Bonaparte-Murat, a sister of the Emperor, purchased “La Chèvre Nourricière” a painting exhibited at the 1804 Salon and in 1806 Henriette Lorimier was awarded a First Class Medal for her painting of “Jeanne de Navarre” which was then purchased by the Empress Josephine, consort of the Emperor Napoleon I.