A place for friends to meet... with reflections on politics, history, art, music, books, morals, manners, and matters of faith.
A blog by Elena Maria Vidal.
"She was not a guilty woman, neither was she a saint; she was an upright, charming woman, a little frivolous, somewhat impulsive, but always pure; she was a queen, at times ardent in her fancies for her favourites and thoughtless in her policy, but proud and full of energy; a thorough woman in her winsome ways and tenderness of heart, until she became a martyr."
"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."
"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
A Note on Reviews
Unless otherwise noted, any books I review on this blog I have either purchased or borrowed from the library, and I do not receive any compensation (monetary or in-kind) for the reviews.
Roslin was born in Malmö, the city in
Sweden now famous as a major international business and design center,
but in 1718 not much more than a tiny provincial town of a couple of
thousand people. He moved to Stockholm in his teens to study painting,
and his career might have remained that of a provincial Swedish painter
had he not been given the opportunity to travel and study in Germany and
Italy. Then in 1752, Roslin moved to Paris, where he met a young lady
named Marie-Suzanne Giroust (1734-1772). Giroust was an orphan from a
comfortably well-off, conservative family of artisans, whose father had
been jeweler to the King of France. She used her inheritance to study
art, and it was while she was taking classes in pastel drawing from
Joseph-Marie Vien (1716-1809), later the official court painter to Louis
XVI, that she met Roslin at Vien’s studio in The Louvre. The two
immediately fell in love, but Giroust’s bourgeois family refused to
allow her to marry Roslin: he was from a poor family, he was a
foreigner, and he was a Protestant. It took seven years for Giroust to wear
down her guardians, but eventually she succeeded, in part due to the
intervention of the Count of Caylus, Roslin’s main artistic patron, and
the Swedish Ambassador, who agreed to witness their marriage contract in
1759. This combination of persistence on behalf of the couple, and
persuasion on behalf of the higher-ups, eventually convinced Giroust’s
family that this would be a respectable marriage. She and Roslin went on
to have six children together, 3 boys and 3 girls. “The Lady With The Veil”, which is in
the National Museum in Sweden, was painted by Roslin in 1768. It shows a
lady dressed “à la Bolognaise”, the style then fashionable in the
Italian city of Bologna. The lady’s head, shoulders, and part of her
face are covered by a voluminous, black satin veil, which has led some
art historians to speculate that it was painted during Carnival or Lent.
Despite her somber overlay, it is hard
to imagine a more feminine and charming image of a lady. The subject of
this picture is smiling and blushing at someone over to her left. Even
though we can only see one of her eyes, the one that we can see is
obviously twinkling at the object of her gaze. Whoever it is, she
clearly has a soft spot for them, but it is actually the fan that tells
us who she is looking at. (Read more.)
Marie-Antoinette "en gaulle" by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
#1 in Kindle Biographies of Royalty!
Marie-Antoinette, Daughter of the Caesars: Her Life, Her Times, Her Legacy
An Audible Bestseller
Marie-Antoinette, Daughter of the Caesars: Her Life, Her Times, Her Legacy
An Amazon Bestseller
Trianon: A Novel of Royal France
My Queen, My Love: A Novel of Henrietta Maria
Available from Amazon
The Saga of Marie-Antoinette's daughter, Marie-Thérèse of France
A Novel of the Restoration
In Kirkus Top 20 for 2014! And #1 in Kindle Historical Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction
"In every Eden, there dwells a serpent . . . ."
#1 in Kindle History of France!
The Night's Dark Shade: A Novel of the Cathars
Listen to Tea at Trianon Radio
All about Marie-Antoinette!
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"...Bud forth as the rose planted by the brooks of waters. Give ye a sweet odor as frankincense. Send forth flowers, as the lily...and bring forth leaves in grace, and praise with canticles, and bless the Lord in his works." —Ecclesiasticus 39:17-19
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