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

Joseph Bonaparte

Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte was the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily , and later King of Spain...

, the older brother of Emperor Napoleon I

Napoleon I

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

, and Julie Clary

Julie Clary

Marie Julie Bonaparte was Queen consort of Spain and the Indies, Naples and Sicily as the spouse of King Joseph Bonaparte, who was King of Naples and Sicily from January 1806 to June 1808, and later King of Spain and the Spanish West Indies from 25 June 1808 to June 1813.- Background:Julie Clary...

. Her mother was the sister of Désirée Clary

Désirée Clary

Bernardine Eugénie Désirée Clary , one-time fiancée of Napoleon Bonaparte, was a Frenchwoman who became Queen of Sweden and Norway as the consort of King Charles XIV John, a former French General. She officially changed her name there to Desideria, a Latin version of her original name...

, Napoleon's first love. Charlotte married her first cousin

Cousin marriage

Cousin marriage is marriage between two cousins. In various jurisdictions and cultures, such marriages range from being considered ideal and actively encouraged, to being uncommon but still legal, to being seen as incest and legally prohibited....

 Napoleon Louis

Napoleon Louis Bonaparte

Napoléon Louis Bonaparte , or Louis II of Holland, was the middle son of Louis Napoléon, King of Holland, and Hortense de Beauharnais. His father was the younger brother of Emperor Napoléon I and king of Holland, while his mother was the daughter of Josephine de Beauharnais, Napoléon's first wife...

, the second son of Louis Bonaparte

Louis Bonaparte

Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, Prince Français, Comte de Saint-Leu , King of Holland , was the fifth surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino...

 and Hortense de Beauharnais

Hortense de Beauharnais

Hortense Eugénie Cécile Bonaparte , Queen Consort of Holland, was the stepdaughter of Emperor Napoleon I, being the daughter of his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. She later became the wife of the former's brother, Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, and the mother of Napoleon III, Emperor of...

. She studied engraving and lithography in Paris with the artist Louis Léopold Robert, who is reputed to have fallen in love with her.

After her father was deposed in 1813 he moved to America and purchased "Point Breeze", an estate on the Delaware River

Delaware River

The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...

 near Bordentown, New Jersey

Bordentown, New Jersey

Bordentown City is in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 3,924. Bordentown is located at the confluence of the Delaware River, Blacks Creek and Crosswicks Creek...

. Bonaparte’s palatial house was filled with paintings and sculpture by such luminaries as Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...

, Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova

Antonio Canova was an Italian sculptor from the Republic of Venice who became famous for his marble sculptures that delicately rendered nude flesh...

, Peter Paul Rubens, and Titian

Titian

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576 better known as Titian was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near...

 (Tiziano Vecelli). The surrounding park of 1800 acres (7.3 km²) included landscaped gardens. Joseph Bonaparte played host to many of the national’s wealthiest and most cultivated citizens, and his art collection played a crucial role in transmitting high European taste to America.

Charlotte, known as the Countess de Survilliers, lived with her father in New Jersey from December 1821 to August 1824. While there she sketched numerous landscapes including Passaic Falls, her father's "Point Breeze" estate, the town of Lebanon, New Jersey

Lebanon, New Jersey

Lebanon is a Borough in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2010 Census, the borough population was 1,358.Lebanon was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 26, 1926, from portions of Clinton Township, based on the results of a...

, and others, some of which were engraved for the book "Picturesque American Scenes" by Joubert. Extant landscape drawings by her include Passaic Falls

Great Falls (Passaic River)

The Great Falls of the Passaic River is a prominent waterfall, high, on the Passaic River in the city of Paterson in Passaic County in northern New Jersey in the United States. The Congress authorized its establishment as a National Historical Park in 2009...

, a view near Tuckerton, New Jersey

Tuckerton, New Jersey

Tuckerton is a Borough in Ocean County, New Jersey, named for founder Ebenezer Tucker , and was a port of entry, but not the third Port of Entry as commonly believed, in the United States As of the 2000 United States Census, the borough population was 3,517.Tuckerton was incorporated as a borough...

, and Schooley's Mountain

Schooley's Mountain

Schooley's or, officially, Schooleys Mountain is a mountain ridge in northern New Jersey that stretches from Lake Hopatcong in the north to Hampton in the south...

. She also painted portraits (Cora Monges, 1822; Emilie Lacoste, 1823) and exhibited her work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is a museum and art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1805 and is the oldest art museum and school in the United States. The academy's museum is internationally known for its collections of 19th and 20th century American paintings,...

.

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

François Gerard

François Pascal Simon, Baron Gérard was a French painter born in Rome, where his father occupied a post in the house of the French ambassador. His mother was Italian. As a baron of the Empire he is sometimes referred to as Baron Gérard.-Life:François Gérard was born in Rome, on 12 March 1770, to...

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

Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...

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

Death

Charlotte reportedly died in childbirth, aged 36.
Her tomb is in the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence, Italy, and it says (paraphrased): Born Oct. 31, 1802, died 1839.

Sources

• E. Benezit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs (1966), vol. 1, p. 754, and vol. 7, p. 279.

• 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.