Tea at Trianon: Woman in White

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

Monday, August 30, 2021

Woman in White

From Bonhams:

Henrietta Maria of France (1609-1669), Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland (1625-1649), wearing white figured dress, white lace collar and fill-in, a large teardrop pearl suspended from her pearl necklace, matching pendant earring, her hair upswept, curled and dressed with a white ribbon bow, landscape background

A portrait of Henrietta Maria of France by British artist John Hoskins (circa 1590-1664) is sure to be a highlight at Bonhams Fine Portrait Miniatures sale in London's Knightsbridge on November 21st. This oval watercolor on vellum is encased in a silver fausse-montre frame with foliate decoration that measures 72mm (2 13/16in) in height. It is expected to attract £20,000-30,000.
Henrietta Maria was the youngest daughter of the assassinated Henri IV (1553-1610) and his second wife, Marie de' Medici (1575-1642). On 13th June 1625, she married the ill-fated Charles I and moved to England with a collection of expensive gowns, fine furnishings, and jewels such as the pearls pictured in Hoskins' portrait. She was Queen Consort of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1625 until 1649.
In this portrait miniature, Henrietta Maria (1609-1669) wears a white figured dress with a white lace collar; her curled hair is swept back and held in place with a white ribbon bow, revealing a large pendant earring that matches the teardrop pearl dangling from her pearl necklace.
In its presentation of Henrietta Maria's form, hair and jewelry, Hoskins' work is reminiscent of Anthony Van Dyck's 1632 double portrait of the Queen holding an olive branch in one hand and extending a laurel wreath in the other to her husband, Charles I (1600-1649). Van Dyck's portrait was commissioned to reside above the fireplace in the drawing room at Somerset House, which Charles I granted to Henrietta Maria in 1626. Hoskins was subsequently commissioned to paint a number of portrait miniature copies of the Queen's bust.
Henrietta Maria was unpopular in England: She was denied an Anglican coronation and frequently attacked as a sinister, foreign, Catholic influence on the King. In France, by contrast, she was praised for her piety, heroism and the courage with which she faced the tragedy of her husband's execution in 1649. The letters exchanged between Charles I and Henrietta Maria during the final decade of the King's life reveal a strong, assertive, and politically-minded Queen. Recently, her biographers have balanced her reputation for being reckless and frivolous with her courage and tenacity. (Read more.)