Leather Musical Portfolio with Silvered Metal Decorations

An elaborate musical portfolio, red leather with fine silvered decorations. In fine condition.  8.75 x 12.25 inches (22.2 x 31.1 cm.). Together with two autograph letters of provenance, one signed "J. Lagarde," the other on his printed visiting card, relating that the portfolio was obtained by descent from a family member who obtained it from an aide de camp of Napoléon III, apparently formerly the musical portolio of Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte, Queen consort of Holland, stepdaughter of Emperor Napoléon I as the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.  The heavy folder is richly decorated with metal border fillets to both front and rear panels, the front surrounding an elaborate lyre with tree branch motif, the rear surrounding a laurel wreath and sceptre motif. The folder opens to two halves, each with it's own locking panel (open, no key present): the left is a fully enclosed folder lined in green silk; the right with further document panels, likewise in red leather and green silk, layering to permit enclosures of varying sizes and formats. 

Composer and painter Hortense Eugénie Cécile de Beauharnais Bonaparte was born in Paris to the Visconte Alexandre de Beauharnais and Joséphine Tascher de la Pagerie. Her father was guillotined during the French Revolution when she was 11-years-old, and her mother, imprisoned during the Revolution, later began a courtship with the famous Napoleon Bonaparte, becoming the Empress Josephine in 1804. At boarding school, Hortense learned music and art, playing piano and studying with Steiblet, Mozin, and Jadin. She also sang and studied the harp and lyre with Dalvimare. She composed romances, primarily with medieval texts, many of which have survived and published her first songs in 1813. 

Napoleon, now her stepfather, requested that Hortense marry his brother Louis Bonaparte who was appointed King of Holland. After their marriage they moved to Holland, but after the birth of their second son, Hortense remained in Paris and later, Switzerland. She often performed her own romances for the many visitors she entertained at her intimate home gatherings, including Franz Liszt and Lord Byron. Her set of 12 romances was dedicated to her brother, Prince Eugene. Her most famous composition, Partant pour la Syrie, was the national anthem of France when her son, Napoleon the Third, ruled. After 1814, with the defeat of the Empire and Napoleon’s exile from France, Hortense was banished to Switzerland but her home continued to flourish as a center for French culture. She continued composing, publishing, drawing, and painting until her death at 54 from cancer.

Bonaparte’s works are located at the music library in the Napoleon Museum at Arenenberg. Her drawings and paintings can also be found in their collections. One of Bonaparte’s portraits can be found at Ash Lawn-Highland, the former Virginia home of James Monroe, who was President of the United States. Eliza Monroe’s daughter, Hortensia Monroe Hay, was named in honor of Bonaparte. (21406)

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Ephemera

History & Historiography

Classical Music

$3,500.00

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