Portrait drawing of Hortense de Beauharnais 1801

Description

A delicate French Consulate-period portrait drawing, believed to depict Hortense de Beauharnais, and supported as such by the late Napoleonic scholar Bernard Chevallier, dated 1801.

Provenance

Hortense de Beauharnais

History & Context

Drawing thought to be of Hortense de Beauharnais dated 1801.
Bears artist initials of CL dated 1801.

This refined Consulate-period portrait is believed to depict Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837), daughter of Josephine Bonaparte and future Queen of Holland. The identification was supported by the distinguished Napoleonic scholar Bernard Chevallier, whose expertise in the portraiture and decorative arts of the Bonaparte family lends considerable authority to the attribution.
The sitter is shown in three-quarter pose wearing a delicately draped veil over an elaborately braided coiffure in the neo-classical taste fashionable during the early Consulate. Softly curling hair frames the pale oval face, while the restrained monochrome technique creates an atmosphere of quiet elegance and introspection. The costume and hairstyle closely reflect the refined antique-inspired aesthetic cultivated within the circle of Josephine Bonaparte at Malmaison around 1800–1802.
The drawing possesses the intimacy and delicacy associated with high-quality French portrait studies of the period, possibly executed as either an independent society portrait or a preparatory study for a miniature or painted composition. The idealised yet naturalistic treatment of the sitter corresponds closely with known early depictions of Hortense produced during the years preceding her marriage to Louis Bonaparte in 1802.

Marks & Inscriptions

CL 1801

Additional photographs