Tea at Trianon: Women of Botanical Art

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, May 4, 2018

Women of Botanical Art

From Victoria:

When Rachel “Bunny” Lambert Mellon was a child, she was far more interested in examining the nuances of her grandmother’s garden than in the usual girlhood pursuits. When she died in 2014, she left behind an amazing botanical legacy, which is shared through the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, headquartered on the site of her former estate. Throughout her life, she amassed a collection of horticultural-themed books, art, and manuscripts that are displayed in the whitewashed-stone library on the property. Within the collection are the works of women botanical artists, many of whom never received the recognition they so richly deserved. OSGF has partnered with Google Arts & Culture to shine the spotlight on these amazing women and their contributions to the field of botany. (Read more.)