FASHION

The history of Joséphine Bonaparte’s style — and how to get the look

The real star of Ridley Scott’s new epic, Napoleon, is Vanessa Kirby as the trendsetting empress. Dr Louisa McKenzie on the jewels and dresses that underpinned Joséphine’s power

Vanessa Kirby as Joséphine Bonaparte in Ridley Scott’s new epic, Napoleon

Dr Louisa McKenzie

Wednesday November 15 2023, 12.00pm, The Times

Ridley Scott returns to the big screen this month with an epic, potentially controversial look at the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, France’s first emperor, played by Joaquin Phoenix. But the story belongs as much to Joséphine, Napoleon’s first wife (played by Vanessa Kirby). Scott’s film traces the story of Napoleon’s rise and fall. Key to the imperial couple’s grasp on the throne was their ability to create and communicate a visual lexicon of power, based largely on the imitation and reinvention of antique themes. With this, Napoleon and Joséphine set trends across fashion, jewellery, art, architecture and design. Joséphine was at the forefront of determining and promoting this new aesthetic that everyone wanted to emulate.

Napoleon and Joséphine were at the forefront of trends across fashion, jewellery, art, architecture and design

Joséphine, born Marie-Josèphe-Rose Tascher de La Pagerie, spent her childhood and early adolescence on Martinique, where her family had lived since 1726. Marriage to her first husband, Alexandre, Viscount de Beauharnais, an army officer, took Marie-Josèphe-Rose to mainland France. The couple eventually separated and her estranged husband was guillotined during the revolution in 1794. She was imprisoned, but freed at the end of the Reign of Terror. In 1795, and by now moving in high political circles, she met Napoleon, the man who would give her the name Joséphine. Theirs was a tempestuous romance, with Napoleon writing impassioned love letters to a seemingly indifferent Joséphine (perhaps hardened by her previous misfortunes).

Joséphine was crowned empress of France, alongside Napoleon as emperor, in the presence of Pope Pius VII on December 2, 1804

ALAMY

The couple married in March 1796. Napoleon, as commander of the Army of the Interior and commander-in-chief of the army of Italy, was soon away on military campaigns, an absence that would last on and off for several years. In 1799 he became first consul of the French Republic, France’s de facto leader. Joséphine was crowned empress of France, alongside Napoleon as emperor, in the presence of Pope Pius VII on December 2, 1804. A new stability materialised in their relationship, as they presented themselves as an influential power couple. Underpinning this were visual allusions to leaders from antiquity, in particular ancient Rome. The clothes and jewels that the couple wore, as well as the way in which they had their residences designed and decorated, played into this image and set off a style revolution across Europe.

At his coronation, Napoleon wore a laurel crown, a symbol of Roman imperial power, made from gold. Six ceremonial chairs ordered for the coronation and later placed in Napoleon’s throne room in the Tuileries Palace in Paris featured gilded arm supports in the shape of Egyptian sphinxes. The pomp of the Bonapartes’ coronation and reign was enhanced by the couple’s love of jewellery. For the coronation, the jeweller Marie-Étienne Nitot set Napoleon’s coronation sword with a 140.5-carat diamond known as the Régent. This would be the beginning of a lasting relationship between the jeweller and the couple. Working alongside his son, François-Regnault, Nitot would go on to make many other jewels for the empress and emperor in his role as court jeweller. For Joséphine, these included a diamond tiara in the form of nine ears of wheat, which she wore at her first ceremonial duty in 1804, and different jewellery sets featuring gold, pearls and intaglios in semi-precious stones. The jewellery house that the Nitots founded is now known as Chaumet.

A gold, cameo and enamel diadem by Jacques-Amboise Oliveras, circa 1808 — believed to have been made for Joséphine

In 2021 two tiara sets believed to have been made for Joséphine (by Jacques-Amboise Oliveras and an unknown maker) were offered for auction by Sotheby’s. Dating to about 1808, two years before her marriage to Napoleon ended, the jewels are in the diadem style and heavily decorated with cameos and intaglios. The Cameo Parure, owned by the Swedish royal family (themselves descendants of Joséphine), may also have once belonged to the empress. Joséphine was perhaps inspired by the antiquities she had in her own collection. She was particularly fond of ancient (and, more likely, Renaissance) cameos, incorporating them into her outfits in various ways through jewellery, belts and headbands. Earlier, however, for Joséphine’s engagement ring, a very different style had been chosen. Featuring two pear-shaped stones, one diamond and one sapphire of just under a carat each, the ring is widely considered to be the first example of the toi et moi style, which is once again proving popular for contemporary brides-to-be.

Joséphine was also a trendsetter for fashion, helping to popularise the empire style of dress, where the waistline was raised to just under the bust. This style, often seen in film and TV adaptations of the works of Jane Austen, was reimagined by John Galliano for Dior’s spring 2005 haute couture collection. Contemporary painted portraits, such as those by Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, François Gérard or Andrea Appiani, often show Joséphine in this style of dress. She wore a version embroidered in gold thread at her coronation.

A diamond and sapphire engagement ring given to Joséphine in 1796 by Napoleon

PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

The marriage ultimately fell victim to Napoleon’s political ambitions when he sought a dynastically ambitious union with Marie-Louise of Austria. Napoleon and Joséphine ended their marriage in 1810 and she retired to Malmaison, then a country estate, which she had purchased in 1799. It was here that she would die in 1814 at the age of 50. By then, Napoleon had fallen from grace for the first time after a series of political and military reversals and was exiled on Elba. On learning of Joséphine’s death, Napoleon was distraught.

• Napoleon review — all hail Joaquin Phoenix’s captivating emperor

Great love story or toxic relationship? Was he a forward-thinking administrator or a power-hungry despot? The story of Napoleon and Joséphine continues to divide opinion. What is clear, however, is that together or apart, the couple knew how to use visual arts and luxury goods to build what we would now consider to be “Brand Napoleon”.