Sérénade sur la terrasse du château d'Arenenberg - by Ary Scheffer, circa 1820s

I've been holding on to this image for a while now, wondering where to include it, what I might pair it with in a post. It's just a sketch, probably quite small, all cracked, rather faded looking, but I find it very charming and evocative. I've been unable to find any information about the piece other than the name of the artist who created it; I'm guessing the approximate date based on the ladies' attire. Though I don't actually know the identities of any of those pictured at this soirée musicale, the lady in pale pink ruffles and large, feathered hat must certainly be Hortense, duchesse de Saint-Leu, née de Beauharnais, former Queen consort of Holland.

Overlooking Lake Constance in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland, Schloss Arenenberg was purchased by Hortense in 1817. The stepdaughter and sister-in-law of Napoléon - daughter of the Empress Joséphine, estranged wife of Louis Bonaparte - she was banished from France at the Emperor's final defeat. Settling in Switzerland, she acquired the estate and set about making renovations in an attempt to recreate something of the atmosphere of Malmaison; it is thought that the surrounding park may have been laid out by Louis-Martin Berthault, the landscape designer of her mother's beloved home. In exile, she worked at writing her memoirs and composing music, all the while entertaining a long stream of visiting luminaries, her home becoming a center for French art and culture. Some years after her death in 1837, her surviving legitimate son, the future Napoléon III, was forced to sell the property. But in 1855, after the establishment of the Second Empire his wife, the Empress Eugénie, repurchased the estate. It remained in her possession through the fall of the empire and the death of her husband. Her exile mostly resident in England, she nonetheless made further renovations to the building and visited on several occasions before, in 1906, she donated the property to the canton of Thurgau. Today the château houses the Napoleonmuseum Arenenburg, a rich repository of art and artifacts of the Napoleonic dynasty.

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Ary Scheffer (10 February 1795, Dordrecht - 15 June 1858, Argenteuil), Dutch-French painter of the Romantic period. He was known mostly for his works based on literature, with paintings based on the works of Dante, Goethe, and Lord Byron, as well as religious subjects. He was also a prolific portrait painter. In 1822, he became drawing teacher to the children of the Louis-Philippe duc d'Orléans, a position that opened the way for many important commissions. He was assured of even more prosperity and honors eight years later when the duc ascended the throne as King of the French.