Portrait of Bernardine-Eugénie-Désirée Clary, Princess of Pontecorvo
Artist: François Gérard (French, 1770-1837)
Collection: Napoleonic Museum, Rome, Italy
A singular personality, Désirée Clary (Marseille, 1777 – Stockholm, 1860) owes her extraordinary destiny to her family's encounter with the Bonapartes in Marseille during the revolutionary era. Devoid of political ambitions, this southern bourgeois woman became, despite herself, the queen of a Scandinavian court, only joining Bernadotte, King of Sweden since 1818, much later, to present Europe with the image of a firmly established dynasty.
The daughter of a wealthy Marseille merchant, Désirée was initially courted by Joseph Bonaparte, who, seeking a wealthy marriage, ultimately chose her sister Julie. Through Joseph, Désirée was introduced to Napoleon, to whom she became officially engaged on April 21, 1795. While Napoleon was in Paris, where the hesitant Désirée did not accompany him, he met Josephine, thus renouncing his first love but remaining faithful to Désirée throughout his life.
Two years later, Joseph introduced his sister-in-law to General Bernadotte, and, fifteen days after their first meeting, they were married civilly in Sceaux on August 17, 1798. Less than a year later, Désirée gave birth to their only son, Oscar, of whom Napoleon claimed to be the godfather and attributed to himself the premonitory choice of the Nordic and Ossianic name.
