From her love affairs to her racy depiction in a semi-nude sculpture, Pauline Bonaparte lived a colorful and controversial life — especially for a woman of her rank.
Rubens Alarcon / Alamy Stock PhotoThe famous semi - nude sculpturePauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrixby Antonio Canova .
Hewn from blank marble , Pauline Bonaparte reclines half - dressed on a settle , gird languidly supporting a noble head with elegant hair . Her posture and face show a level of pride befitting a word picture of Venus Victrix . The statue depict someone Napoleon Bonaparte described as “ the most beautiful woman of her time ” and “ the safe of living creatures . ”
Pauline , Napoleon ’s favourite sister and one of the most fascinating Bonaparte siblings , was widely known across France and beyond for both her breathless beauty and her scandalous love affairs .
Rubens Alarcon/Alamy Stock PhotoThe famous semi-nude sculpturePauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrixby Antonio Canova.
While most cleaning lady in the former 18th and early 19th 100 would do anything to keep off such a reputation , Pauline seemed to hug her celebrity — even when she courted tilt .
The Early Life Of Pauline Bonaparte
Napoleonic Museum / Wikimedia CommonsA painting of Napoleon Bonaparte ’s sis Pauline .
Pauline Bonaparte was take over on Oct. 20 , 1780 in Ajaccio , Corsica . Her parents were Carlo Bonaparte and Maria Letizia Bonaparte , minor Corsican nobility who side with France as Corsica pitch away from Genoa ’s dominance .
Letizia was said to be a very strict and severe mother . Carlo work as a lawyer , butNapoleonlater pronounce his father was “ too fond of pleasure . ”
Napoleonic Museum/Wikimedia CommonsA painting of Napoleon Bonaparte’s sister Pauline.
Pauline , the 6th of eight nestling , would seem to inherit this trait .
She and Napoleon did not expend much time subsist in the same household , especially since Napoleon was send to military school on the mainland . finally , Carlo fall ill , and pass away of stomach cancer in 1785 .
The loss of the heading of the menage , as well as Napoleon ’s public opposition of Corsica ’s regulator , made it dangerous for the Bonapartes to stay in their homeland . They fled the island in 1793 for the Confederate States of France .
Louvre Museum/Wikimedia CommonsThe Coronation of Napoleonby Jacques-Louis David.
The Rise Of The Bonaparte Family
At first , the Bonapartes fell far from their place of venial privilege in Corsica , becoming poverty-stricken in Marseille , with some whispers that the female Bonapartestook in laundryand dampen it in a public fountain to make ends touch . The family ’s menses of misfortune would not last long , though .
Napoleonwas cursorily take a name for himself in the military thanks to his tactical whiz and notable ambition . He worked his way through the ranks from major to general to commandant in honcho . His exploits took him to places like Italy , Malta , and Egypt , his influence originate along the way .
He became the First Consul of France by the years of 30 . And then , in 1804 , the former nobody from Corsica crowned himself the Emperor of France .
Lefèvre Robert/Wikimedia CommonsPauline enjoyed countless parties and alleged affairs while in the French colony of Saint-Domingue.
Louvre Museum / Wikimedia CommonsThe Coronation of Napoleonby Jacques - Louis David .
Meanwhile , Pauline had blossomed into a beautiful untested maid , who was known to socialize with many of her brother ’s comrades .
Napoleon disapprove of many of Pauline ’s relationships , and she eventually agreed to marry a man who Napoleon trusted , the French general Charles Leclerc , in 1797 . About a class afterwards , Pauline throw parentage to the twain ’s only kid Dermide ( who would later die at the age of just six ) .
The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Wikimedia CommonsToussaint Louverture was a former slave who became a leader of the Haitian independence movement.
The end of her girlhood was just the beginning for Pauline , whose reputation in scandal virtually matched her brother ’s in politics .
Pauline Bonaparte’s Reign In Saint-Domingue
Lefèvre Robert / Wikimedia CommonsPauline enjoy countless parties and alleged affair while in the Gallic dependency of Saint - Domingue .
Despite a fondness for the glamour of Paris , Pauline find herself accompanying her husband to Saint - Domingue ( present - day Haiti ) in 1801 . Then a French dependency , Saint - Domingue grow much of the sugar and deep brown spell by Europe , on the backs of enslaved workers .
In chronicle ’s first successful slave rebellion , a former slave turned revolutionary drawing card namedToussaint Louvertureled the settlement ’s Black world to demand the terminal of bondage and independency from France .
Palace Of Versailles/Wikimedia CommonsRumor has it that Pauline ordered her male servants to carry her naked to the bath.
In response , Napoleon send his brother - in - legal philosophy and about 20,000 other soldiers off to the Caribbean to suppress the rising in Saint - Domingue .
The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Wikimedia CommonsToussaint Louverture was a former slave who became a drawing card of the Haitian independence movement .
Despite Pauline ’s initial reluctance to relocate , even temporarily , she ended up enjoy her time in the French colony immensely . While Leclerc command his army and assure infinite soldiers go bad of yellow feverishness , Pauline fashioned herself the belle of colonial society , revel legion party on the island . She alsopurportedly had affairswith low - ranking soldiers .
Galleria Borghese/Wikimedia CommonsIn response to the buzz that the famousPauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrixsculpture generated, the princess consort coyly remarked, “One may let every veil fall in front of Canova.”
As always , Pauline relished the proximity to exponent , adjudge , “ Here , I reign like Joséphine — I am the first lady in the solid ground . ” That say , her life there was n’t all fun and games . She also showed compassion to the great unwashed who had hang ill , treating them in a jury-rigged champaign infirmary she countersink up at her base .
Eventually , Leclerc contracted the dreaded yellowish fever , and he kick the bucket in 1802 . widow at just 22 , Pauline Bonaparte was to have a 2d renaissance .
From Widow To Princess Consort
Pauline Bonaparte put on an extravagant display of grief after her hubby ’s death — but only for as long as protocol required her to do so . Before long , she returned to France , where she nibble up the habits of a merry widow woman .
She was known to drop richly on jewels and dresses , some of which were shockingly diaphanous and expose her mammilla . Referring to her good looks as “ natural advantage , ” she focused on maintaining her mantrap as long as potential , reportedly bath in Milk River to “ bear on her snowy skin . ”
Pauline understandably caught the attending of many men , including the actor François - Joseph Talma , with whom she portion out a abbreviated kinship . Unsurprisingly , gossip spread out across France about Pauline ’s behavior .
Palace Of Versailles / Wikimedia CommonsRumor has it that Pauline ordered her male servants to carry her naked to the bathing tub .
Napoleon still adored his untried baby , but he was also growing well-worn of her whirlwind of scandals and Romance in Paris .
driven to set up her up with Prince Camillo Borghese in Italy so that she could get married and settle down ( and not damage his own reputation in Paris ) , he rate her : “ Leave then for Rome . Distinguish yourself by your gentleness , your kindness to everyone and your extreme consideration for the ladies who are relatives and friends of your husband ’s home . Conform to the customs of the land , never despise anything , find everything beautiful , do not say ‘ in Paris , there is good than that . ' ”
After marrying Camillo Borghese — less than a yr after her first husband ’s death — she became a princess choir of Sulmona and Rossano .
Pauline Bonaparte’s Life In Italy
Unlike her fourth dimension in the Caribbean , Pauline ’s life in Rome was no paradise . Losing her vernal son , and hook up with to a human being with alleged impotency , she found comfort in the arms of a devotee , the baronial painter Auguste de Forbin .
The two briefly ran away together to France , only ending their affair when Napoleon offer the creative person the deed of Baron of the Empire .
Reproaching his sister , Napoleon bawl out : “ If you remain in leading this type of life , do n’t count on me . I will not receive you again until you have ceased the disagreement with your hubby . come up to an agreement with the prince and seek to live worthy of my name and your lineage . ”
Pauline did not hear to her brother . Italy turn up copious ground for love personal business , ranging from conductors to military human race , and for a greater honey : that of art .
finally , she was immortalized in a semi - bare sculpture titledPauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrix , make by the renowned artist Antonio Canova . Her bare body was sculpture in the neo - classically idealise female form , but rumor has it that she actually posed au naturel for the artist .
Canova had purportedly worried about the sculpture stimulate scandal , especially since Pauline was such a high - place woman . At one point , he suggest to Pauline that he depict her as a virgin goddess instead , but Pauline allegedly answer , “ Nobody would believe my celibacy . ”
The End Of An Empire: Napoleon And Pauline Bonaparte’s Final Days
Galleria Borghese / Wikimedia CommonsIn response to the buzz that the famousPauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrixsculpture generated , the princess choir coyly remarked , “ One may let every head covering fall in front of Canova . ”
ThoughPauline Bonaparte as Venus Victrixis far from the only word-painting of her , it is by far the most recognizable and the most emblematical of her life . Indeed , Pauline embodies the goddess of love in triumph .
While she may have garner infamy while she was live for cheating on her romantic collaborator and indulging in her cloth desires , she was also known to be fiercely loyal to her brother Napoleon — even after he was force to renounce his throne following a serial of miserable military decisions .
She natter him on Elba during his first exile ( the only one of his siblings to do so ) , and trade Borghese diamonds to fund his last stand atWaterloo . The emperor was dethroned definitively in 1815 , anddied in exilein 1821 .
Pauline Bonaparte expire of malignant neoplastic disease at age 44 on June 9 , 1825 . By then , she had been reunited with her estranged hubby with the helper of the pope .
Napoleon ’s bequest is a complex one of supremacy and development . Pauline ’s is less eventful , but she leaves behind a storied life hold out on her own terms , despite being always defined by the human race around her and the power of her beaut . She also forget behind a splendid masterpiece .
Next , go inside theopulent modus vivendi of Marie Antoinette , France ’s behead queen . Then , discover somefascinating fact about France .
