Tea at Trianon: Monet's Giverny

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, January 17, 2020

Monet's Giverny

From Dusty Old Thing:

Monet lived at this house from 1883 until his death in 1926. His famous garden was immortalized in his paintings. The house is where he painted such masterpieces as Flowering Arches, Giverny, Water Lilies and the Japanese Bridge, and his other famous Waterlilies series.

Monet rented the house for the first 7 years he lived there, moving his family into the quaint home. He then purchased the home in 1890. His large blended family (comprised of his children and step children) all lived there, although he didn’t marry his second wife until 1892. Both the inside and outside of the home reflected his love of color, from the paint on the walls to the flowers in the gardens.

Monet went on to buy an additional garden plot at the back and proceeded to create a lively and vibrant outdoor space that surrounded his house. (Read more.)