María
Eugenia Ignacia Augustina de Palafox Portocarrero de Guzman y Kirkpatrick,
Empress Eugenie, is one of history's tragic beauties, joining Empresses
Elisabeth of Austria and Carlota of Mexico
. She was beautiful and she married Emperor Napoleon III - what would sound
like a girl's happily-ever-after dreams come true. But the Emperor was
unfaithful, apparently flagrantly so, leaving her just one child, a son. Her
son did what royal sons did and still do, served in the military, but in the
British Army. When the Zulu contested British ambitions in South Africa, the
Prince Imperial served there and died during the Zulu Wars - leaving her with
no grandchildren.
I
have read that she wasn't really that interested in clothes. But she was endowed with wonderful taste, elegant, and dressed
like a true Empress. While
royal wives often played second fiddle to mistresses in fashion (such as Louise de la Valliere
, the Marquise de Montespan
, and the Marquise de Pompadour), Napoleon III's numerous
mistresses took back seat to the Empress Eugénie when it came to style. One objective of
her dressing was to provide work for people in the luxury goods businesses. Her
beauty and elegance doubtless also made for great propaganda; she was a
wonderful trophy wife. A number of artists painted portraits of her, as shown in
this subalbum. Her Wikipedia
article mentions her contributions to fashion. One thing Empress
Eugenie did not do is invent the cage crinoline, but she originally liked it and helped
to popularize it.
She knew Princess Pauline Metternich, wife of the Austrian ambassador who self-deprecatingly referred to her simian features, who discovered the fashion hose run by Charles Frederick Worth, a British émigré. Princess Metternich is covered later in this subalbum. Princess Metternich brought Worth to the Empress' attention, ensuring Worth an unequalled role in fashion history. Worth created haute couture as it was known until recently with exclusive designers making custom-fitted clothes for exclusive clients. Designers operated from posh shops and displayed their creations on living manequins. The elite wore designer dresses that everybody else copied. Now fashion does not flow down from designers to elite to everyone else. Fashion often flows up "from the streets." Stores watch sales to spot emerging trends so the style can be manufactured and rapidly stocked using just-in-time production and shipping techniques with electronic oversight.
Eugénie was born to a Spanish aristocratic family where she grew up with one sister who had better matrimonial luck, María Francisca. María (Paca), covered in a Subalbum of the Iberian Styke Between 1837 and 1870 Album here, married the Duke of Alba. Eugenie's mother was a larger-than-life figure, María Manuela Enriqueta Kirkpatrick de Closbourn y de Grevigne, Countess of Montijo, the subject of this Wikipedia article. María Manuela is covered at the end of the People Associated with Empress Eugénie Albumette that is part of this Subalbum.
She bore numerous titles in Spain: marquesa de Ardales, marquesa de Moya, marquesa de Osera, condesa de Ablitas, condesa de Teba, condesa de Baños, condesa de Mora, condesa de Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and vizcondesa de la Calzada. She was also dama de la Orden de las Damas Nobles de la Reina María Luisa.
Reunion des Musees Nationaux has 40 pages, each with nine images of Eugéniana. Some of those images are used here.

1849 La Eugenia que enamoro a Napoleon III by Federico Madrazo y Kunz (Palacio de Liria - Madrid Spain) out take

1849 Eugenia de Montijo, condesa de Teba by Federico Madrazo y Kuntz (Palacio de Liria - Madrid, Spain)

Her Majesty Empress Eugénie dressed as an amazon (in riding dress) by Jules David (Chateau de Compiègne)

1854 Eugénie de Montijo shown in a ball dress, wearing the sash of the Grand-Croix of the order of noble ladies of Marie-Louise of Spain by Edouard Louis Dubufe (Versailles)

1854 Salle a manger de la princesse Mathilde by Charles Giraud (Château de Compiègne; Musée du Second Empire) Photo - Andreas Praefcke

ca. 1854 Imperatrice Eugénie by Armand Constant Melicourt-Lefebvre after Winterhalter (Chateau de Compiegne)

1855 Visite de la reine Victoria à Paris en 1855, le souper offert par Napoléon III dans la salle de l'Opéra du château de Versailles, le 25 août 1855 by Eugène Lami (Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon - Versailles France)

1855 Empress Eugénie Surrounded by Her Maids of Honor by Franz Winterhalter (Musée national du château de Compiègne - Compiègne, Picardie, France)

1855 (18 April) Empress Eugénie of France attending the investiture of Napoleon III with the Order of the Garter by Edward Matthew Ward (Royal Collection)

Entrevue de LL. MM. l'empereur et l'impératrice des français avec l'impératrice douairière de Russie, Alexandra Feodorovna (private collection)

1856 The Imperial Family (Musee de la maison Bonaparte, Ajaccio Corsica France) lithograph on beige paper

L'Impératrice portant le Prince impérial by Joseph Félon (Chateau Compiegne - Compiegne, Picardie, France)

1856 (published on 21 June) Her Majesty the Empress and the Prince Imperial's governesses (Chateau de Compiegne, Compiegne)

1857 Eugénie, Empress of the French (1826-1920), nee Countess of Montijo de Teba de Guzman in a wide-brimmed hat by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (Hillwood Mueum - Washington DC USA)

1859 La Victoire de Magenta annoncée au Conseil de Regence by Pierre Desire Guillemet (Chateau de Compiegne)

1859 Napoleon III and the Empress Eugénie receive the Grands Corps de l'Etat at the Chateau de Saint-Cloud on 19 July (Versailles)

1860 Annexation of Savoie to France in August by Edourard Riou (Versailles) Photo credit Gerard Blot

ca. 1860 Napoleon III and the Empress visit the works of the Opera de Paris by Ed. Gilis (Château de Compiègne)

1861 Arrival of the King of Prussia at Compiegne by Charles Maurand and published in Le Monde Illustre

1861 Portrait of Empress Eugénie by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (Napoleonmuseum, Arenberg - Salenstein, Thurgau, Switzerland)

1861 Portrait of Empress Eugénie by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (Napoleonmuseum, Arenberg - Salenstein, Thurgau, Switzerland) limited color print

1863 Fireworks at the Imperial residence of Fontainebleau, in honor of the capture of Puebla (Chateau de Fontainebleau)

1860-1865 Empress Eugénie by Pierre Paul Emmanuel de Pommayrac (Walters Art Museum, Baltimore Maryland)

1860s (first half) Empress Eugénie by Pierre Paul Emmanuel de Pommayrac (Walters Museum - Baltimore, Maryland, USA)

1864 Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie from La reception des ambassadeurs du Siam a Fontainebleau by Jean Léon Gerome (Musee national du chateau de Fontainebleau)

1864 Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie, and retinue from La reception des ambassadeurs du Siam a Fontainebleau by Jean Leon Gerome (Chateau de Fontainebleau)

1866 The Empress visits cholera victims at the Hotel-Dieu by Paul Felix Guerie (Chateau de Compiegne, Compiegne)

ca. 1866 Empress Eugenie protecting Amiens and Paris from cholera by Leon Brunel-Rocque (Château de Compiègne, Compiègne)

1866 Presentation of the ladies of Chalons to the Empress by Francois Claudius Compte Calix (Chateau de Compiegne, Compiegne)

1867 The Emperor and Empress received by Senator and Count Mimerel a Roubaix on 29 August by Claude Jacquand (Chateau de Compiegne, Compiegne)

L'Imperatrice Eugenie by Henri-Felix-Emmanuel Philippoteaux (Chateaux de Malmaison et Bois-Preau, Malmaison)

1869 (April issue) "State Ball at the Tuileries — Presentation to the Emperor," published in Harper's Weekly

1869 Le Monde Illustre - The trip of the Empress and prince Imperial visit to Napoleon I's birth place at Ajaccio on 1 September

Eugénie sitting in dress with wide lace lapels and long sausage curls (Musée d'Orsay - Paris, France)

Empress Eugenie in the salon at the Tuileries by Giuseppe Castiglione (collection of the Duke of Berwick and Alba, Madrid)

The Empress Eugenie by Imprimerie Charles Pinot et Sagaire (MuCEM, Musee des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Mediterranee, Paris)

Eugenie de Montijo, Countess of Teba, Empress of the French by imprimerie Pellerin (MuCEM, Musee des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Mediterranee, Paris)

Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, Eugenie de Montijo, Countess of Teba, Empress of the French by imprimerie Pellerin (MuCEM, Musee des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Mediterranee, Paris)
