1837 Napoleon Bonaparte Receiving Queen Louisa of Prussia at Tilsit, 6th July 1807 by Nicolas Louis François Gosse (private collection)
This had to be
an emotional meeting — Napoleon and Luise disliked one another. She was making
a personal appeal to Napoleon to spare a hapless Prussia that Napoleon ignored.
In 1815, Prussian forces helped British forces end Napoleon's career at
Waterloo in present day Belgium.
Queen Luise
wears full court dress in an effort to impress Napoleon at the 1807 Tilsit
meeting in this retrospective Gosse portrait.