… Bonaparte (Napoleon 1st’s little brother), was a patron of the arts and beloved by her country.
She was also very fashionable. This generation ended the Regency “little white dress” that had evolved by about 1820 into the “very ornamented Spanish and Rococco little white dress”, and entered the “Victorian Era”.
(portrait: Mathilde wears the wide skirted dress with drop shoulders notable of the early and mid Victorian Eras. The first portrait appears to be a costume)