Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte (31 October 1802 – 2 March 1839) was the daughter of

Joseph Bonaparte it, Giuseppe-Napoleone Buonaparte es, José Napoleón Bonaparte , house = Bonaparte , father = Carlo Buonaparte , mother = Letizia Ramolino , birth_date = 7 January 1768 , birth_place = Corte, Corsica, Republic of ...

, the older brother of Emperor

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

, and

Julie Clary Marie Julie Clary (26 December 1771 – 7 April 1845), was Queen of Naples, then of Spain and the Indies, as the wife of Joseph Bonaparte, who was King of Naples from January 1806 to June 1808, and later King of Spain and the Spanish West Indi ...

. She was active as an artist.

Life

After the fall of her uncle Emperor Napoleon in 1815, her father moved to America and lived in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sin ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Mary ...

. Charlotte and her sister, however, stayed with their mother in Europe. They lived in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its ...

and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in 1815-1821, and then in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

. She studied engraving and lithography in Paris with the artist

Louis Léopold Robert Louis Léopold Robert (13 May 1794 – 20 March 1835) was a Swiss painter. Biography He was born at La Chaux-de-Fonds ( Neuchâtel) in Switzerland, but left his native place with the engraver Jean Girardet at the age of sixteen for Paris. He w ...

, who is reputed to have fallen in love with her. Charlotte, known as the Countess de Survilliers, lived with her father in Philadelphia from December 1821 to August 1824. Charlotte married her first cousin Napoléon Louis, the second son of

Louis Bonaparte Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French cl ...

and

Hortense de Beauharnais Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte (; , ; 10 April 1783 – 5 October 1837) was Queen consort of Holland. She was the stepdaughter of Emperor Napoléon I as the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. Hortense later married Napol� ...

, on 23 July 1826. She became a widow in 1831.

Artist

While in America, she sketched numerous landscapes including Passaic Falls, her father's " Point Breeze" estate, the town of

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

, 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, and Schooley's Mountain. She also painted portraits (Cora Monges, 1822; Emilie Lacoste, 1823) and exhibited her work at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Death

Charlotte reportedly died in childbirth. The father of her child was reportedly Count Potocki. Her tomb is in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence, Italy, and it says (paraphrased): Born Oct. 31, 1802, died 1839.

Legacy

Charlotte, her sister Zénaide (1801–1854), and their mother were painted by the French artist

François Gérard François Pascal Simon Gérard (, 4 May 1770 – 11 January 1837), titled as Baron Gérard in 1809, was a prominent French painter. He was born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador, and his mother was It ...

, while their mother was Queen of Spain. Another French artist, the well-known

Jacques-Louis David Jacques-Louis David (; 30 August 1748 – 29 December 1825) was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. In the 1780s, his cerebral brand of history painting marked a change in taste away fr ...

, painted a portrait of the two sisters; it shows them reading a letter from Philadelphia sent by their father.

Gallery

File:Cottrau - Napoléon-Louis Bonaparte (1804-1831).jpg, King Napoléon-Louis Bonaparte File:Jacques-Louis David - The Sisters Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte - Google Art Project.jpg, Zénaïde and Charlotte Bonaparte in 1821,by

File:Charlotte Bonaparte Tomb.jpg, Charlotte Bonaparte's Tomb.

Ancestry

Sources

* E. Benezit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs (1966), vol. 1, p. 754, and vol. 7, p. 279. p 464 * 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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonaparte, Charlotte Napoleone 1802 births 1839 deaths Deaths in childbirth Charlotte Napoleone Bonaparte People from Bordentown, New Jersey People from Hunterdon County, New Jersey Charlotte Napoleone Bonaparte Daughters of kings