Baron François Pascal Simon Gérard (1770-1837), after.
Joachim Murat in hussar uniform (1767-1815), commander of the Garde des Consuls and military governor of Paris in 1801.
Round miniature painted on ivory.
Original rectangular frame in gilded wood, inscribed: "H.M. PRINCE JOACHIM, KING OF NAPLES".
D. 11,5 cm.
Frame: L. 18,3 cm.
- Probably presented by Joachim Murat to the knight Berthemy.
- Pierre-Augustin Berthemy (1778-1855), aide-de-camp to Joachim Murat in 1812.
- Then by descent.
Baron Gérard, Joachim Murat in hussar uniform (1767-1815), commander of the Garde des Consuls and military governor of Paris in 1801, oil on canvas, 1801, castles of Versailles and Trianon (inv. MV1114) (ill. 3).
Pierre-Augustin Berthemy enlisted as a volunteer on December 20, 1798 in the 8th Cavalry Regiment. On September 12, 1800, he became aide-de-camp to General Jean Joseph Ange d'Hautpoul. He fought at Austerlitz where he was blessed with a gunshot to the chest and was again blessed on February 8, 1807 at the Battle of Eylau with a blow from the biscaian. Appointed captain on February 14, 1807, he was appointed as the Emperor's orderly officer. Berthemy was then chosen to accompany, with Lieutenant Auguste-Frédéric de Talhouët, General Savary, between July 1807 and January 1808, on a mission to Saint Petersburg.
Marshal Murat then entrusted him, from May 17, 1808, with a mission to the Balearics. This mission is of all the dangers he faces with the scientist François Arago. Imprisoned in Bellver Castle by the junta of Girona, hostile to Napoleon, until July 28, he ended up going to Algiers, which he joined on August 1. He left on August 8 on a Barbary merchant ship which was intercepted in the Gulf of Roses on August 14 by an armed Catalan privateer. He was thrown again into Spanish jails where he suffered many deprivations and theft of his property. He fell ill there and suffered from his two former war wounds.
After many months of convalescence, Berthemy was appointed in March 1810 governor of the castle of Valençay where he had to "watch over the safety of the Spanish princes" following the instructions of Duroc (the ex-king of Spain and his son were there. under house arrest). He was relieved of his post in February 1811.
On May 10, 1812, he entered the service of Joachim Murat, King of Naples, as aide-de-camp. He takes part in the Russian campaign. Promoted colonel on August 4, he was blessed at the Battle of the Moskva on September 7, 1812. He was chosen to carry a letter from Marshal Berthier to the general-in-chief of the Russian army Koutouzov on October 21 and 22, 1812.
He died on January 31, 1855 in Paris and rests in the Père-Lachaise cemetery.