Text and art by katherine sandoz
We all know the pleasures of eating strawberries and some extol their aphrodisiacal properties, but none so well as Madame Tallien. Born to the aristocracy, given six names, and raised by nuns, this strawberry lover survived a march to the guillotine, bearing the fruit (ten) of multiple lovers and husbands (including the notoriously seedy and filthy Napoleon Bonaparte), several stints in prison and all of the great political and social shifts of the late 1700s. A style maven and risk-taker throughout her life, she insisted on bathing solely in the cure-all juice of strawberries.
(“madame tallien in her bath”, 11” x 8.5”, mixed media on watercolor, 2012)
original Salted & Styled artwork available here
