Maria Louise

I have been greatly distracted by the arrival of this huge book. Three inches thick and an oversize print size makes it one of the biggest books in my collection.
It is the size of a small coffee table.
I have never been a fan of Maria-Louise. But the book was too good to pass up.
Its just that she said so many ridiculous things.
Like this quote attributed to her after Napoleon's death.

I confess that I have been deeply affected. I have never had any close feeling of any kind for him, but I can never forgot that he was the father of my son and that far from ill-treating me, as the world believes, he always showed me every consideration. I have therefore been very grieved by the news, and though one ought to be happy that he ended his unfortunate existence in a Christian manner, I should nevertheless have wished him many more years of happiness and of life, provided he were not to spend it with me.

The backhanded compliment. What a woman.
The book does have this amazing portrait of her. It is the first time I could say she looks very pretty.
The scarf is doing a nice job deflecting the size of her chin.

Favorite Napoleon

I know, I know.

I always say this is my favorite painting of Napoleon.

But this time....THIS IS MY FAVORITE PAINTING OF NAPOLEON.

I have not discovered who the artist is (yet) but I bought this engraving in the antique book market in Paris this past April. Called "Napoleon en Campagne."

I think the painting is very complimentary. He looks handsome and worldly.

I would have followed him too.

And I have a new button I can add to the shop!

Napoleon Button Magnets

I have been making art buttons for my greeting card business. I absolutely love the one inch format!

So I have decided to start a Napoleon series.

This is an excellent way for me to use some of the amazing vintage images in my 100+ year old books. This is my first set. I had a hard time selecting my favorites because the book has over 20 hand coloured images and 500 black and white sketches. The book being almost 3 inches thick is difficult to scan...but I managed to pull these eight out. You can purchase your own set in my webstore linked here!