Tea at Trianon: An Early Mattei

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

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

An Early Mattei

Last September, I was having cocktails at a friend's house. One of the guests was the distinguished art journalist Meredith Mendelsohn and we had a great conversation. We remarked on an unusual painting belonging to our hostess, signed only "Mattei '30." I always liked the painting since it reminded me of old neighborhoods in Baltimore. After some research, Meredith discovered more about the artist. From AskArt:

Antonio Mattei was born in New York in 1900 and studied at Cooper Union and the National Academy of Design. From 1936 to 1943 he was under the sponsorship of Contemporary Arts holding two one-man exhibitions in its gallery. His work has been included in national exhibitions notably the Golden Gate Exposition and the annual exhibition at the Butler Art Institute where his Winter Burial was awarded first prize. Mr. Matttel lives in Ogunquit, Maine carrying on a summer art school there. He had a one-man show at the Laurel Gallery who is his usual dealer. (from an exhibition catalog published by Laurel Gallery in June of 1948) (Read more.)

During the Depression, Mr Mattei supervised art projects for the WPA. The painting above precedes the New Deal, however. Tony Mattei died in Maine in 1956.

More HERE and HERE. Share