Tea at Trianon: Boldini's Elsie de Wolfe

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

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Boldini's Elsie de Wolfe

From Architectural Digest:

De Wolfe was a popular actress and fashion plate, though, so Boldini’s flatteringly piquant portrait attracted much public interest though muted critical admiration. Per an April 1898 report about “a very striking… sketch of Miss Elsie de Wolfe” in Munsey’s Magazine, “It is very broadly painted, with no attention to detail, and a notice is placed in the frame telling us it is the work of one afternoon. Like everything Boldini does, it is brilliant and clever, but for all that, it is a little hard. One cannot but wish to see it a hundred years from now, when those whites will be toned down.” De Wolfe was pleased with results, apparently, and asked the artist to come to 49 Irving Place to help find the perfect spot for displaying the canvas. The location that was selected is unknown: the painting, either small in scale or large, does not appear in any contemporary photographs of the Irving Place house nor of Villa Trianon. (Read more.)