Bronze Bust Of The Empress Marie Louise, Wife Of Napoleon I, Nineteenth Empire Style

Old & very beautiful bust of Empress Marie Louise of Austria. Second wife of the Emperor Napoleon I, she gave birth to the eaglet. Sculpture after François Joseph Bosio. Very high quality of carving. The bust is presented on its original marble terrace. 20cm in height. Brown patina. Very beautiful condition Marie-Louise Léopoldine Françoise Thérèse Josephe Lucie of Habsburg-Lorraine (Maria Ludovica Leopoldina Francisca Theresa Josepha Lucia of Habsburg-Lorraine), Archduchess of Austria, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia, born December 12, 1791 in Vienna (Austria) and died December 17, 1847 in Parma (Parma), is Empress of the French from 18 10 to 1814, then Duchess of Parma, Plaisance and Guastalla until 1847. Eldest daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria, she was given in marriage in 1810 to the Emperor of the French and King of Italy Napoleon I to seal the Treaty of Schönbrunn between France and Austria, after the latter's defeat at the Battle of Wagram in 1809. Reluctantly joining At the imperial court of the Tuileries, Marie-Louise quickly began to appreciate her new position although the French did not like her and she did not feel at home in this country which, twenty years before, had beheaded another Austrian archduchess, her great-aunt Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI. When Napoleon was defeated by the Sixth Coalition, Marie-Louise decided not to follow him into exile on the island of Elba, but returned with her son to the court of Vienna. At the end of the Hundred Days and the decisive defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo, the Empress, to better defend the interests of her son, decided to remain faithful to her family of origin, the Habsburgs-Lorraine. The Congress of Vienna granted him, in 1815, the duchies of Parma, Plaisance and Guastalla. She was then only 24 years old. Harshly criticized by the French for having abandoned Napoleon at the time of the debacle, Marie-Louise, who governed during a troubled period, succeeded on the other hand, through an enlightened and social policy closely monitored by Austria, in being very much loved by the Parmesans who called her "the good duchess".