Tea at Trianon: Elizabeth I by Steven van der Meulen

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, December 4, 2019

Elizabeth I by Steven van der Meulen

From Bonhams:

This newly discovered and hitherto unrecorded portrait is an important addition to the iconography of Elizabeth I, being a rare early depiction, dating from circa 1562, and is thus one of the first known sophisticated images of Elizabeth as Queen. The earliest images of Elizabeth as monarch were, in Sir Roy Strong's words, 'mechanical workshop productions that portray her standing facing the spectator, a stiff unattractive figure attired in black with an ermine-lined collar to her surcoat.' Examples of that image, known as the 'Northwick Park Pattern' (from the portrait which is now in the National Portrait Gallery with other versions in The Guildhall, Thetford, the National Gallery of Ireland, and recorded at Clopton House) are believed to date from the time of the Queen's accession, circa 1558 (see R. Strong, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, vol. II, figs. 186 and 187). The present portrait is one of the first pictures of the Queen made in response to the undated draft proclamation put together by William Cecil imploring the Queen to have her likeness taken, designed to counter debased images of the Queen and which set up in their place the idea that an approved portrait might be produced. (Read more.)

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1 comment:

May said...: It's a very handsome portrait. Probably the most attractive one of Elizabeth that I have seen. The pose with her holding the red rose reminds me of one of the paintings of her mother, Anne.; December 6, 2019 at 6:49:00 PM EST