Tea at Trianon: Rose-Adélaïde Ducreux

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

Friday, January 11, 2013

Rose-Adélaïde Ducreux

French composer, musician and painter.

Rose’s paintings were displayed in several exhibits, beginning in the Paris Salon of 1791, the first year in which members of the public were permitted to display their own paintings. Her work was displayed in Paris in several exhibits for the rest of the decade, where they were received favorably.

Self portrait with a Harp at the Salon is a remarkable painting not only for its beauty but for the historical insight it provides. Rose stands, not playing the harp, but seemingly interrupted from the middle of tuning (she holds the tuning key in her right hand). Obviously painted by a someone intimately familiar with the instrument, the harp is depicted with red strings for C and dark strings for F, and with nearly photorealistic pedals. The strings are tied to the top of the harp in a slighty untidy, realistic way — how Rose must have tied her own instrument’s strings. The song laying on the table, “Tender Love”, suggests she also sings as she plays. (Read entire post.)