Tea at Trianon: The British Royal Family’s Private Art Collection

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, May 9, 2023

The British Royal Family’s Private Art Collection

Prince Philip by Edward Seago

From ArtNet:

The Royal Collection, amassed over three centuries by the British royal family, is by far the largest art collection in the world. Held in trust by the monarch for the nation, the trove numbers over one million objects—not limited to paintings, tapestries, photographs, and furniture—about 3,000 of which have been loaned to museums around the world.

But a recent report by the Guardian has found that there is a whole other royal collection, described by the outlet as a “much more elusive category… which the royals treat as their own.”

Not publicly registered, these roughly 400 artworks encompass objects that the royal family has personally acquired (often at bargain prices) and gifts it has received, whether privately or officially. These assets, which are not part of the Royal Collection, are valued in the tens of millions. (Read more.)