Tea at Trianon: The Louvre vs the Nazis

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, June 12, 2020

The Louvre vs the Nazis

From the New York Post:

By the time the Germans seized Paris, the Louvre had dispersed all of its 3,600 paintings, along with thousands of sculptures and objets d’art, throughout France. Several staff members went into exile too, accompanying these works and restoring them while in hiding. Amazingly, the Louvre stayed open, despite its hallowed halls and paltry displays.

“There wasn’t much to see, but the Germans wanted to cultivate the impression of business as usual,” said Gardner. And they did manage to swipe a few things, including Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s “Immaculate Conception,” which they sent to Spain as a gift to dictator Francisco Franco, who they were hoping would help them with the war.

At first, the Germans seemed happy enough to plunder the private collections of Jews who had either fled France or were sent to concentration camps. But toward the end of the war, they ordered Jaujard to have the Louvre’s collection sent back to Paris (presumably so they could then transport it to Germany). “Jaujard managed to forestall that threat by saying that they needed to keep the art hidden because those big, bad British are coming with their airplanes,” said Gardner. (Read more.)