Tea at Trianon: Drama at Home

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

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Drama at Home

Some lessons from Whistler's Peacock Room.

In Washington...[Michael S. Smith] discovered a similar treasure trove of Gilded Age splendor: the Peacock Room at the Freer Gallery of Art. Awash in rich Prussian blue and turquoise-y green laced with gold, the dining room was hand-painted in the 1870s by James McNeill Whistler for British shipping magnate Frederick Leyland. The over-the-top details were sparked by the owner's collection of Chinese porcelain. "I love the controlled exoticism here—the mix of blues and greens accented with gold gives it an Art Deco feel," said Mr. Smith. "Whistler's extreme point of view is what makes this room feel so ahead of its time. Although it's immersive, the décor inspires a number of takeaways. You could do a very modern reinterpretation of this scheme by using wallpaper or paint in that peacock blue, and then adding gilded touches and blue-and-white accents." (Read entire article.)