Tea at Trianon: Portraits of Dogs

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, June 12, 2023

Portraits of Dogs

Lapdogs, to be precise. From Apollo:

Ever since Rakewell swooned through ‘Portraits of Dogs: From Gainsborough to Hockney’ at the Wallace Collection, only to be disappointed that the curators weren’t given a longer leash, your correspondent has been craving more canines on canvas. Imagine our delight, then, when we set eyes on the late 18th-century portrait of a pup, believed to be Pompon, Marie Antoinette’s favourite pet, which sold for $279,400 – nearly 56 times its low estimate – at Sotheby’s this week.

Never mind that there’s little proof the portrait has anything to do with the French queen; the artist, Jacques Barthélémy Delamarre, painted miscellaneous mutts, rabbits and cats across a largely undistinguished career. The work’s title, Portrait of a Poodle, is patently inaccurate. Whatever this creature’s lineage (a löwchen, perhaps?), it certainly does not belong to the titular breed. No what really hits home is the sheer horror staring out from the creature’s surprisingly intelligent eyes, fringed by ludicrous locks. If ever there was a cautionary tale about human-to-animal reincarnation, this haunted hound is it.

Delamarre painted several versions of this pooch in various states of coiffure. Perhaps the tenuous Marie Antoinette connection comes, in part, from similarities between this doggy hairdo and the queen’s own elaborate curls. For those looking for more canine couture, we’ve called a couple more companions to heel. (Read more.)