Sketch of Murat by Antoine-Jean Gros, 1808. The text reads, "Voici mon cher ami Murat le Roi de Naples" ("Here is my dear friend Murat the King of Naples"). Murat had been, along with Marshal Berthier, a patron of Gros, and commissioned paintings of himself on two occasions. Gros' first painting featuring Murat was The …
Tag: History
“Nearly always in good taste”
Murat became famous--perhaps "notorious" would be a better word--for designing outlandish uniforms for himself, to make himself stand out not only on the battlefield, but wherever he went. While Constant, Napoleon’s valet, who liked Murat, charitably recalled that Murat was "the man in all France who dressed with the most care, and nearly always in …
“He had an excellent heart, a mediocre mind…”
A fairly balanced view of Murat from Hortense de Beauharnais, daughter of Josephine, and adopted daughter of Napoleon. Murat was a good man. He was dashingly brave, and possessed military talents together with a great desire to please and to be admired. He sought to have good manners and overdid them. One saw by his …
Continue reading “He had an excellent heart, a mediocre mind…”
“I want to live another quarter of an hour…”
A recollection of Murat at the Battle of Leipzig (October 1813): "At that moment, a polished military staff arrived from the right, at the head of which was a superb horseman wearing a toque surmounted with a great plume, dressed in a sort of Brandenbourg tunic, his beautiful horse covered with a golden-clawed tiger skin. …
Continue reading “I want to live another quarter of an hour…”
“… I could not tire of looking at him.”
Madame Louise Fusil relates a brief encounter with Murat during the 1812 campaign, prior to the crossing of the Berezina River as the French army was in retreat. "The King of Naples held his horse by lash, and his hand was set on the door of my carriage. He spoke an obliging word when he …
“Joachim attended to his children’s education with utmost care…”
Joachim attended to his children’s education with utmost care, since their future, despite his apparent optimism, filled him with vague apprehensions. He wanted them to have a full education, in order for them, if necessary one day, to be self-sufficient. Aside from equitation and dance, it was his wish that they learned German and English. 'I’m …
Continue reading “Joachim attended to his children’s education with utmost care…”
Watercolor of Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in the Silver Salon at the Elysée Palace in Paris, painted in 1810 by Louis Hippolyte Lebas. Caroline spent the majority of 1810 in Paris ostensibly to assist her brother Napoleon’s new Empress, Marie-Louise, with the running of her new household at court, but also to promote the …
“Glancing at his soiled garments…”
Source: The Court and Camp of Bonaparte, issue 29 of Harper's family library. New York (J. & J. Harper), 1833. Pgs 332-333.
Project Murat 