Point Breeze: Joseph Bonaparte's American - estate of former king in New Jersey; art, furniture collections

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 2002 by Patricia Tyson Stroud

A visitor to the house at one time wrote of the public rooms: "When all the doors were opened, the seven rooms, giving on to each other in a double line, produced a suite of great effect, above all in the evening when the apartments were brilliantly illuminated." (16) The dining room contained a table that could seat twenty-four and was often set with the finest Sevres porcelain. On gala evenings the guests were served by livened waiters with mustaches and long beards--a striking anomaly among American servants. (17) Against the walls stood two spectacular pier tables ornamented with carved sphinxes and other Egyptian motifs inspired by Napoleon's expedition to Egypt (see P1. IX). Wendy A. Cooper has written of these tables:

As exceptional examples of high-style Egyptian taste in America at that time, they were important pieces of furniture that may have influenced the demands of New York and Philadelphia patrons as they ordered furniture from cabinetmakers such as Charles-Honore Lannuier, Joseph B. Barry, Michael Bouvier, and Anthony G. Quervelle. (18)

Between the windows in the dining room was a pair of magnificent porphyry vases given to Joseph Bonaparte by Charles XIV John, king of Sweden and Norway (r. 1818-1844), who was married to Julie Bonaparte's sister D6sinie (1777-1860). On the buffet stood four gilt candelabra from the palace of Luxembourg, while on the walls were paintings of Napoleon's four great battles in Italy The curtains were blue damask, and an immense Brussels carpet covered the floor. (19)

Joseph Bonaparte's apartment on the second floor, overlooking the garden, consisted of bedroom, dressing room, study and "bathing-room." The same two Quaker women who visited Point Breeze in 1836 described his bedroom as having curtains, chair upholstery, and a bed canopy of light blue satin trimmed with silver "Every room [of the suite] contained a mirror that reached from the ceiling to the ground," according to one of the ladies, and:

Over the bed hung a very splendid mirror; and another over the bath. The walls were covered with oil paintings, principally of young females, with less clothing about them than their originals would have found agreeable in our cold climate, and much less than we found agreeable when the count without ceremony, led us in front of them, and enumerated the beauties of the painting with the air of an 20 accomplished amateur. (20)

One of the paintings Bonaparte showed his straight-laced guests may have been Titian's Tarquin and Lucretia (P1. XIV), depicting a mythological rape scene. The work appeared at auction six times between 1845 and 1911. (21)

Joseph Bonaparte loaned many of his works of art to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia for its annual exhibitions. At first, he was reluctant to lend David's Bonaparte Crossing the Alps (P1. V) because of its size and the difficulty of removing it from its frame in order to transport it,22 but his friend Joseph Hopkinson, the president of the academy finally persuaded him, and the picture was displayed at the academy's annual exhibition every year from 1822 to 1829. There is no record that Tarquin and Lucretia was ever shown at the academy perhaps to avoid offending the ladies of Philadelphia, who, in the early days of the academy had separate visiting days in the interest of modesty. (23)