Tea at Trianon: Through Her Eyes

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, March 3, 2025

Through Her Eyes

Madame de Polignac

From The Crossroads Gazette:

Vigée Le Brun has painted some of my favorite portraits of women, including those of herself. She was one of the most sought-after portrait artists in Europe, and once one surveys her works, the reason why becomes abundantly clear. She had a way of capturing her subjects’ inner lives, and she correctly anticipated the shift from Rococo to Neoclassical art. Her works embraced the balance of Neoclassical compositions while maintaining the soft palette and downright prettiness of Rococo.
Her portrait of Yolande de Palastron, Duchess of Polignac (below) is a strong example. The Duchess of Polignac was a favored friend of Marie Antoinette and an informal political advisor to both the queen and Louis XVI....There’s a depth to the Duchess of Polignac in Vigée Le Brun’s work, a weight in her gaze. Her lips are parted, and one can just see her teeth—a style that Vigée Le Brun pioneered in her portraits, and something that attendees at the Paris Salon found to be quite scandalous. (But honestly, what didn’t the Salon attendees find scandalous?) This particular painting was modeled on Vigée Le Brun’s Self Portrait in a Straw Hat from that same year, 1782. (Read more.)