#nell’asta Dal Rinascimento al primo ‘900 del 2 febbraio 2021

[empirearchives]

Jérôme all grown up during his Italy years

Portrait of Girolamo Bonaparte, by Pietro Benvenuti

The last of Napoleon’s brothers, born in [1784], Girolamo was a carefree and frivolous young man, often lacking prudence and moderation, who led a life of entertainment. In 1807 he married Catherine, daughter of King Frederick I of Württemberg, and was made king of Westphalia by his brother. After the fall of Napoleon, he left France to reside first in Vienna then in Trieste, Rome and Porto San Giorgio in the Marche. A widower since 1835, in 1840 he secretly married an Italian noblewoman, Giustina Pecori-Suárez (1811–1903), in Florence. Returning to Paris in 1848, he was appointed governor general of the Hôtel des Invalides, then Marshal of France in 1850, president of the Senate in 1851 and was reinstated with the title and honors of Imperial Prince in 1852. He died in 1860; his tomb is located in the cathedral of Saint Louis des Invalides next to Napoleon’s large sarcophagus.

(Source)