Restorations to the Musée Bertrand

13/2/25 - Restorations - Châteauroux, Musée Bertrand - One of the most loyal of the loyal, Henri Gatien Bertrand followed Napoleon into exile, first to the island of Elba, then to Saint Helena. The role of this general of the Empire and Grand Maréchal du Palais was mentioned in the exhibition that the Musée de l’Armée had devoted to the death of the emperor (see the article). Several works from the Châteauroux museum, which is located in General Bertrand’s former mansion, were on display. When he set off for Saint Helena, he took his family with him, including his daughter, who therefore spent part of her childhood on this distant island with Napoleon. A book by Lucien Lacour published in 2021 tells the story of Hortense Bertrand [1] who owed her first name to her godmother, Hortense de Beauharnais.

1. Joseph-Désiré Court (1797-1865)
Portrait of Mrs Hortense Thayer, née Bertrand, 1844
Oil on canvas - 175 x 140 cm
Châteauroux, Bertrand Museum
Photo: Châteauroux Métropole

See the image in its page

2. Joseph-Désiré Court (1797-1865)
Portrait of Mr Amédée Thayer, 1846
Oil on canvas - 177 x 142 cm
Châteauroux, Bertrand Museum
Photo: Châteauroux Métropole

See the image in its page

Returning to France, she married Amédée Thayer in 1828, a Protestant politician whom she converted to Catholicism. Both rubbed shoulders with the best society of the Second Empire, in Paris, Compiègne or Fontainebleau, and both also travelled throughout Europe. Their children unfortunately died at an early age, and then in 1844 Hortense lost her father. This was undoubtedly the reason why Joseph Désiré Court, commissioned to paint her portrait that same year, depicted her so soberly dressed in black (ill. 1), whereas Louis Janmot had captured her on canvas a few years earlier in an image a lighter image of the young woman, now preserved in Warsaw. In her notebooks - which she bequeathed to her confessor - Hortense recalls the moments when she posed…