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Article: Point Breeze: Joseph Bonaparte's American.(estate of former king in New Jersey; art, furniture collections )
- Article from:
- The Magazine Antiques
- Article date:
- October 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Brant Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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On ornament to society (1) was the way Napoleon I (r. 1804-1815) described his older brother Joseph Bonaparte (P1. II). Although this description had an edge to it, since Joseph Bonaparte had not been the ambitious ruler Napoleon had hoped for, it accurately forecast the nature of the older Bonaparte's life in the United States. After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815 and subsequent surrender to the English aboard the HMS Bellerophon, Joseph Bonaparte set sail for exile in the new world, and for a life in which he and his art collection truly became ornaments to society.
In 1816 Joseph Bonaparte, the ex-king of Naples and of Spain, bought an estate called ...