Rose Joséphine Bonaparte née de la Pagerie, 1797
Description
Engraved portrait of Joséphine Bonaparte, shown half-length in left-facing profile within an oval against a densely worked dark background. Her hair is swept up and arranged in loose curls, with long ringlets falling beside her neck. She wears a low-cut, sleeveless dress gathered beneath the bust with a patterned sash, and a narrow decorative band around her upper arm. Beneath the portrait is the inscription “ROSE JOSEPHINE BONAPARTE née de la Pagerie”, ‘Dessin d’apres nature et Gravé en 1797.
History & Context
This engraving is one of the earliest known I,ages of Joséphine Bonaparte that circulated around the time of her marriage to Napoleon in 1796, and 8 years before she became Empress of the French. The Bibliothèque nationale de France holds a print bearing the same title, published in Milan by Frédéric Agnelli in 1796, although the precise date and relationship of this example to that edition remain unconfirmed. Such prints helped establish her public identity as the wife of the increasingly celebrated general Bonaparte
Her sleeveless dress, high waist and loosely arranged curls reflect the fashion of the Directory period, when light fabrics and styles inspired by classical antiquity became prominent. The inscription “Rose Joséphine Bonaparte née de la Pagerie” combines her personal names, married surname and birth name. The portrait presents her without the crown, jewels or ceremonial robes that would distinguish her later imperial imagery.
Born Marie-Josèphe-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, she was known as Rose during her first marriage to Alexandre de Beauharnais. Napoleon began calling her Joséphine during their courtship, and following their marriage in 1796 she became Joséphine Bonaparte. As the renowned Napoleonic historian Bernard Chevallier always emphasised, she was never “Joséphine de Beauharnais”: that familiar designation retrospectively combines the name Napoleon gave her with her first husband’s surname. The inscription on this engraving, “Rose Joséphine Bonaparte née de la Pagerie”, preserves the correct distinction.