Another Great Book Cover

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You could put me in a room with ten thousand books and I would spot a Napoleon novel instantly. This book was in a terrible pile at an outdoor market in Paris. HEAPS of books, strewn on a blanket on the ground...all $5 Euros each. The gold on the cover is excellent, but the back has a small water stain. No doubt because the books are rarely protected from the elements. I bought it for the cartoon triptych I found inside I have never seen this version of the death bed scene. Most of the images in this book I already have. But this I like. It will take me a while to sort out the who's who in the room...but the book is now in my library and I can enjoy flipping through the pages at my leisure.

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Something I Found In Paris this Week!

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My own french copy of the letters!

The pages of this book are very aged...and clearly the book was never read because many of the pages are still not opened. I will enjoy trying to read them with a translation book by my side! It always sounds so much better in French!

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Pauline Bonaparte

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That's it.

I really need to get to Rome.

Richard sent me some images from the Napoleonic Museum in Rome and I really need to get there. One image was this fantastic painting of Pauline Bonaparte.

For years now I have been reading about her legendary beauty.

And trying to keep my twentieth century beauty bias in check, I have to say, I must have thought a million times that she really wasn't that stunning.....what was all the fuss about?

Until I got Richard's picture and it forced me to look through several of my books for another.

And I found this painting.

I must have just ignored it because it wasn't of Josephine.

She really is beautiful.

In fact. I can now say she was truly stunning. The painting is at Versailles by Benoist.

I've ordered a new book about her on Amazon. (I put the link on the side of my blog.)

Now I need more information!

Also, I was so curious about the painter of this Pauline portrait. I believe it was Marie-Guillemine Benoist. She studied under David and although there are other artists with the same last name, Marie was working in Fance during the Napoleon years. I found a painting of another Bonaparte sister as well!

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Hortense Up Close

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I have taken some amazing digital pictures in various museums.

This painting is one that I love and the guards do not seem to mind me taking photos in Malmaison.

Jean-Baptiste Regnault painted Hortense and it is in this painting that I really see how much she looks like her mother.

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