Abstract

In 1799, Joséphine de Beauharnais, recently married to General Napoléon Bonaparte, negotiated the purchase of Malmaison, a country house located twelve kilometers outside Paris. For the next fifteen years, Joséphine transformed her garden into an extensive working farm and center dedicated to botanical study. Debunking the perception that Joséphine entertained a nostalgic passion for the fruits and flowers of her native Martinique, Chapter 3 argues that she crafted a sophisticated program that supported Napoléon's colonial ambitions in the Atlantic and the Pacific. Joséphine commissioned lavish folio botanical illustrations of her collections, creating a paper legacy of her accomplishments that was critical for following generations of women gardeners, illustrators, and artists.

Keywords: Malmaison, colonialism, imperialism, Joséphine de Beauharnais, Napoléon Bonaparte, acclimatization

[Sunday April 1 (12 Germinal,1798)]

Jardin des Plantes. I myself, Bonaparte, his wife and her son, we found ourselves in front of the elephants. I talked a lot to his wife; she is extremely polite. She is small and has a pretty, delicate stature, her face must have been pleasant and gives an air of understanding as well as finesse. Nonetheless, she has a face of a woman of the world, one with a certain amount of experience. Her complexion is yellow. She must be over forty years old … Bréa told me a story; he knew a woman who was a Créole, like Josephine, and comes from the same island. A fortune-teller had read their palms and told the former that she would marry a Frenchman—a Parisian more precisely—and that Mrs. Bonaparte would become the Queen of France. And so, she was given this nickname, as a joke. The first of these fortunes has come true.—[Jacques-Louis] David drove the Bonapartes.