Mathilde Bonaparte

Mathilde Wilhelmine Bonaparte Lætitia, also Mathilde Letizia ( born May 27, 1820 Trieste, † January 2, 1904 in Paris) was the daughter of Napoleon's youngest brother Jerome Bonaparte and his second wife Catherine of Württemberg. She devoted herself to the pastel and watercolor painting and entertained from the 1850s in her Parisian Hôtel particulier an artistic and literary salon.

Life

Born in Trieste Mathilde grew up in Florence and Rome. On November 1, 1840, she married Florence in the Russian Prince Anatoly Demidov, Prince of San Donato, a son of Count Nikolai Demidov and the Baroness Elizabeth Stroganova. The marriage was marked by infidelity and disputes. Anatole had a long-standing affair with Valentine de Sainte- Aldegonde - a relationship that he continued against Mathilde's will.

Mathilde then left Florence with her lover Alfred de Émilien Nieuwerkerke and the jewelry collection of her husband. The marriage was finally divorced in 1847, Anatole was legally forced to pay an annual maintenance fee of 200,000 francs to Mathilde. Despite his vehement demands Anatole never got back his jewelry.

In Paris, Mathilde was a prominent member of the aristocratic art and literary circle during and after the Second Empire. After Anatole death on April 29, 1870, she married in December 1873 Claudius Poplin ( 1825-1892 ).