Tea at Trianon: Art for Mother's Day

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Art for Mother's Day

Self-portrait of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun and daughter

Marie-Antoinette and her children by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

From Artnet:

Neo-Classical French painter Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was the beloved royal portraitist of Marie Antoinette and created history’s most enduring images of the infamous French queen (including a tender portrait with her children). Le Brun was also a mother herself—she had one daughter, Julie, whom she adored, and frequently used as a model. Here, she portrays them both in a warm embrace, with Julie’s face partially nestled into the crook of her neck. Le Brun’s toga-like drapery harkens to the popular à la Grecque style of the age, which drew inspiration from the artwork of the ancient world. Nevertheless, through her depiction of a blank background, she reminds her viewers that she is an artist at work in her studio with a very contemporary child. (Read more.)

May said...: Lovely portraits, but it would be nice if they didn’t have to say “the infamous” French queen...; May 12, 2020 at 10:18:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I know, really. So annoying.; May 12, 2020 at 10:53:00 AM EDT