Tea at Trianon: Autochromes of Life at Versailles

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

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Autochromes of Life at Versailles

If photographs had existed in the eighteenth century, they might have looked like the autochromes of Jules Gervais-Courtellemont. From Reading Treasure:

Jules Gervais-Courtellemont (1863-1931) was a French photographer who is most well known for his color autochromes of World War I, which were so popular that Courtellemont had them published in a 12 volume series. In addition to his photography of the battlefield, Courtellemont also took many photographs of scenes of homes, landscapes and people. His composition style, especially when taking photographs of people, was often intimate but deliberately artistic. Courtellemont loved using symbolism, such as ensuring that certain colors or people were distanced or contrasted with others, to create an appearance of structured--and yet realistic--life. (See entire post.)