Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte
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Charlotte Bonaparte (October 31, 1802-March 2, 1839) was the daughter of Joseph
Bonaparte, the older brother of Emperor Napoleon I, and Julie Clary. Her mother was the sister of
Charlotte studied engraving and lithography in Paris with the artist Louis-Leopold
Robert, who is reputed to have fallen in love with her.
After her father was deposed in 1808 he moved to America and purchased "Point Breeze," an estate on the Delaware River near
Bordentown, New Jersey. Bonaparte’s palatial house was filled with paintings and
sculpture by such luminaries as Jacques-Louis David, Antonio Canova, Peter Paul Rubens, and Titian (Tiziano Vecelli). The surrounding park of 1,800 acres included landscaped gardens. Joseph Bonaparte
played host to many of the national’s wealthiest and most cultivated citizens, and his art collection played a crucial role in
transmitting high European taste to America.
Charlotte, known as the Countess de Survilliers, lived with her father in New Jersey from December 1821 to August 1824. While
there she sketched numerous landscapes including Passaic Falls, her father's "Point Breeze" estate, the town of Lebanon, NJ, and
others, some of which were engraved for the book "Picturesque American Scenes" by Joubert. Extant landscape drawings by her
include Passaic Falls, a view near Tuckerton, NJ, and Schooley’s Mountain. She also painted at least one portrait (Cora Monges,
1822) and exhibited her work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Charlotte, her sister Zénaide (1801-1854), and their mother were painted by the French artist Francois Gerard while their mother was Queen of Spain. Another French artist, the well-known
Jacques-Louis David, painted a portrait of the two little girls; it shows them
reading a letter from Philadelphia sent by their father.
Charlotte died while trying to give birth to her only child, whose father was a Count Potocki.
Sources:
E. Benezit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs (1966), vol.1 p.754, and
vol.7 p.279.
Patricia Tyson Stroud, The Man Who Had Been King: The American Exile of Napoleon’s Brother Joseph (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2005), pp.88-113.
William H. Gerdts, Painting and Sculpture in New Jersey (Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand, 1964), p.56.
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