This is inspired by Robert Lefèvre's full-length oil portrait in the Royal Palace, Stockholm. Désirée Clary (1777-1860), daughter of a well-to-do tradesman from Marseille, was first the fiancée of Napoléon Bonaparte (see lots 249, 275 and 281), but finally married Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte in 1798. The couple arrived in Stockholm in 1810, but because of the rough climate, Désirée went home to France soon after and did not return to Sweden until 1823 on the occasion of the marriage of their son Oscar to the Princess of Leuchtenberg. So she was crowned Queen of Sweden only in 1829, eleven years after her husband who had become King as Carl XIV Johan in 1818.
For another portrait of Désirée, see lot 274.