Tea at Trianon: Nicolas Lancret, Master of Fêtes Galantes

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

Monday, January 25, 2016

Nicolas Lancret, Master of Fêtes Galantes

From Catherine Curzon:

Lancret was born in Paris as the son of a coachman; he showed a talent for art in his youth and initially trained as an engraver before being apprenticed to Pierre d'Ulin, who began the young man's formal training. Despite d'Ulin's efforts, Lancret's admiration for Jean-Antoine Watteau led him to leave his position in 1712 and join the studio of Claude Gillot, who had trained Watteau, eventually beginning a friendship with his idol.

He remained with Gillot for a year, enjoying increasing plaudits and success but his friendship with Watteau took a blow when Lancret exhibited two works that were so similar in style to Watteau's that some attributed them to him. The older painter was aggrieved that Lancret had apparently copied his style though this personal upset certainly did no damage to Lancret's career, the new toast of Paris in more demand than ever. (Read more.)