DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62133#0215
THE LEUCHTENBERG GALLERY.
199
CHAPTER XX.
THE LEUCHTENBERG GALLERY.-THE PAINTER GENELLI.
I went this morning to the Leuchtenberg Gallery of Pic-
tures, which, it is said, will be removed to Russia, after the
death of the old Duchess, the widow of Eugene Beauharnais.
The Duke, her son (since deceased) resides in Russia, having
married the daughter of the Emperor of Nicholas. These
pictures were collected by Eugene Beauharnais •, and there
are various memories of him, of Josephine, and Napoleon,
meeting you at every turn.
A picture which, on entering the room, almost imme-
diately strikes you, is a very beautiful portrait of the
Empress Josephine, by Gerard; a portrait which satisfies
you with its calm gracefulness : she is dressed in the French
classic style, as one always sees Josephine represented, but
it is here anything but offensive; her small, dark ringlets
cluster becomingly round her noble, oval countenance ; and
the bare arms, unencumbered with heavy sleeves, are seen
in their perfect beauty. She languidly rests one arm upon
the amber-velvet cushions of a low divan on which she sits.
A bouquet of beautiful flowers, gum-cistus, roses, and
pansies, lies beside her. She wears a white gauze dress
without a single ornament, and seems to have just entered
from a garden, the flowers and trees of which peep in at
you through the open window above the cushions of the
divan. She sits as in a reverie, with a quiet, sombre gloom
softening the rich colours of the room about her—just as if
a gloomy fate cast its sobering influence over her own bril-
199
CHAPTER XX.
THE LEUCHTENBERG GALLERY.-THE PAINTER GENELLI.
I went this morning to the Leuchtenberg Gallery of Pic-
tures, which, it is said, will be removed to Russia, after the
death of the old Duchess, the widow of Eugene Beauharnais.
The Duke, her son (since deceased) resides in Russia, having
married the daughter of the Emperor of Nicholas. These
pictures were collected by Eugene Beauharnais •, and there
are various memories of him, of Josephine, and Napoleon,
meeting you at every turn.
A picture which, on entering the room, almost imme-
diately strikes you, is a very beautiful portrait of the
Empress Josephine, by Gerard; a portrait which satisfies
you with its calm gracefulness : she is dressed in the French
classic style, as one always sees Josephine represented, but
it is here anything but offensive; her small, dark ringlets
cluster becomingly round her noble, oval countenance ; and
the bare arms, unencumbered with heavy sleeves, are seen
in their perfect beauty. She languidly rests one arm upon
the amber-velvet cushions of a low divan on which she sits.
A bouquet of beautiful flowers, gum-cistus, roses, and
pansies, lies beside her. She wears a white gauze dress
without a single ornament, and seems to have just entered
from a garden, the flowers and trees of which peep in at
you through the open window above the cushions of the
divan. She sits as in a reverie, with a quiet, sombre gloom
softening the rich colours of the room about her—just as if
a gloomy fate cast its sobering influence over her own bril-