Tea at Trianon: Getting Ready

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, August 9, 2013

Getting Ready


Marie-Antoinette by Heinrich Lossow

Above is a young Marie-Antoinette getting ready for a night on the town. It looks like Mercy, the Austrian ambassador, is speaking gently with her, reminding her of her duties. Another courtier is reading to her, while in the background Léonard and a lady-in-waiting fiddle with her coiffure. Marie-Antoinette has a gleam of mischief in her eyes as if she cannot wait to get away from them and on to her party. Share

3 comments:

julygirl said...: Considering there were no cameras in those days that could just shoot and click all of her activities, there seem to be many paintings in spite of the time and talent needed to produce them.; August 9, 2013 at 1:34:00 PM EDT
G. Thomas Fitzpatrick said...: Compare this to Hogarth's earlier Marriage a la Mode number 4. One wonders if the artist was familiar with Hogarth's work and intended to reference it and insinuate the double meanings that Hogarth certainly incorporated.; August 10, 2013 at 9:07:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I don't know. Most of Hussow's work is quite unpleasant and he does not seem to be into subtleties.; August 10, 2013 at 2:42:00 PM EDT