Tea at Trianon: Madame de Pompadour in the Moonlight

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, October 11, 2013

Madame de Pompadour in the Moonlight

Madame de Pompadour

Apparently some people think this is a portrait of Marie-Antoinette. It is not; it is Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, the Marquise de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV. (Via Tiny-Librarian.) As royal mistress she spent more money in a year than Marie-Antoinette did in her entire life. The Marquise helped to arrange the marriage of Marie-Antoinette to the Dauphin Louis-Auguste (Louis XVI) but the two never met. However, Marie-Antoinette also had herself painted in a moonlit garden, HERE. Share

5 comments:

The North Coast said...: How on Earth could anyone confuse Mme. Pompadour with Marie Antoinette? This iconic Boucher portrait of Pompadour is one of the most famous paintings in the world, and the painter did about a half-dozen portraits of Pompadour wearing various versions of the beautiful gown she wears here. It was surely her favorite dress and I believe it was based on her own design. She had artistic talent as well as having been intellectually gifted.

But, then, the confusion is understandable in a population of people who commonly don't know the capitol cities of the states they live in, or think that the Civil War took place in 1776.; October 11, 2013 at 8:19:00 AM EDT
julygirl said...: Magnificent painting.....you are so right North Coast!; October 11, 2013 at 9:33:00 PM EDT
Marcy K. said...: Wonderful post and attached link posts too. What do you think are the best biographies of both Marie-Antoinette and Mme. Pompadour?; October 11, 2013 at 10:04:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: My favorite bio of Marie-Antoinette is the 2 volume study by Nesta Webster. My favorite bio of La Pompadour is Nancy Mitford's.; October 11, 2013 at 10:06:00 PM EDT
Marcy K. said...: Thanks so much! I can't wait to read them.; October 11, 2013 at 10:10:00 PM EDT