The Empress Eugenie (1826-1920), wife of Napoleon III, Emperor of France, 1854 (c)

Coloured mixed method engraving miniature, printed on glass, artist unknown, 1854 (c).

Eugénie de Montijo became Empress consort of the French following her marriage to Napoleon III in January 1853. In 1856 she gave birth to a son, Louis, the Prince Imperial who would later be killed, accompanying British forces, during the Zulu War. Following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, she accompanied the Emperor in exile to England.

This portrait was picked up in the Crimea by Bugler Herbert Coughlan, 57th (West Middlesex) Regiment of Foot, while assisting a medical officer with the wounded, 1854.