Portrait of Princesse Murat
by WINTERHALTER, Franz Xaver, Oil on canvas, oval, 73 x 60 cm
The sitter of this signed and dated portrait is Malcy-Louise-Caroline-Fr�d�rique Berthier de Wagram (1832-1884), a grand-daughter of Marshal Berthier (1753-1815), a distinguished military figure who was Chief of Staff and Major General of Napoleon’s army from 1802 to 1814. In 1854 she married Prince Joachim-Joseph-Napoleon Murat, a grandson of Joachim Murat, another of Napoleon’s great marshals who reigned as King of Naples from 1808 to 1814. The union united two of the grandest Napoleonic families at the beginning of the Second Empire.