Malmaison, 2

Continuing our visit to the bad house...

Assorted busts and paintings of N from the Consul
days

Gorgeous table with official portrait of the Emperor in the center
and inlaid portraits of various relatives; nepotism was evidently
not against the Napoleonic Code, with one brother serving as King
of Spain, another in the Netherlands, others in Italy; also assorted
in-laws elsewhere in Europe; sort of a Round Table

Empress Josephine Among the Children, Lafonde, 1806 [not her
own children]

Portrait of Empress Josephine by Gerard

In what is now called the Josephine Room

Interesting swan chairs; 2nd Empire, we think; or 
possibly 3rd or 4th

Vermay's Marie Stuart, Queen of Scotland, Receiving Her Death
Sentence from Parliament; owned by Josephine's daughter Hortense

Empress' bedroom

The Beauharnais family, into which Josephine originally married;
both she and her husband were imprisoned in the Terror; he was
executed but she was not and was released later

Malmaison's real treasure, other than the David and
Gerard paintings, is the collection of N's personal
items from his exile and imprisonment on St. Helena;
above is the plan for Longwood, the estate he was
confined to; rather like an English country house,
except for the heat, humidity, mold, isolation...

Furnishings from Longwood

The box says "dessert"; doesn't everyone have landscape-
painted travel dessert dishes for the occasional exile?

N's boots and Dr. Scholl inserts

Comfy chair

But for the confinement, he was able to live well, at least by any
normal standard; wrote his memoirs, entertained guests, attempted
to learn English so he could keep up with world affairs; he was not
permitted French newspapers

Facsimile of a drawing by Vernet, of N in 1825 on
St. Helena; note the Panama hat has replaced the
bicorne; descriptions from 1812 had already described
him as overweight with a pronounced paunch

Always on campaign

Death-mask, the first of several made; the cause of
death, at 51, remains a matter of controversy; probably
arsenic poisoning, although it is unclear whether the
arsenic naturally occurred in his diet or otherwise...so
I have read

Happier times...almost as if he had been photo-shopped into a 
Fragonard or Watteau painting; his last words were "the Army...
General of the Army...Josephine"