Monday, January 14, 2019

Music Monday: Marie-Antoinette Song from Kaiser! König! Karl!

Music Monday: a day for contemporary music, soundtracks and other tunes related to Marie Antoinette.


Kaiser! König! Karl! is a German children's television program, akin to the BBC's Horrible Histories, which approaches history through a fun lens ideal for capturing the attention of children. Like Horrible Histories, Kaiser! König! Karl! includes song sketches about various events and people. One such song is the simply titled 'Marie-Antoinette Song,' featuring--you guessed it--the queen of France herself. It's a silly, upbeat song with some pretty hilarious choreography (I can't get enough of the "Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Marie-Antoinette" guy, myself) that is definitely worth a listen. Enjoy!


Museum Sunday: A spinning top owned by Louis Charles, son of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI

Museum Sunday: a day for highlighting objects, books, and other items from the collections and lives of Marie Antoinette and her contemporaries.



Louis Charles de France--or Louis XVII--played with this painted wooden spinning top while he and his family were imprisoned in the tower of the Temple in Paris. It was given to Louis Charles by Pauline de Tourzel, the daughter of the governess to the royal children of France, at some point before she and her mother were separated from the family. It was one of several toys that Louis Charles had the option of playing with during his captivity, at least until he was shut up in a solitary cell with little comforts. The top was given to Marie-Thérèse Charlotte after her brother's death and she, in turn, gave it back to Pauline when she was finally allowed to visit the young princess in the Temple. The top remains in a private collection today.

Saturday, January 12, 2019

What They Said Saturday: A quote from 'Versailles: A Novel' by Kathryn Davis


[credit: © RMN (Musée du Louvre) /Michèle Bellot]

"He cut my hair, I stepped on his foot.

When you look up, clouds; when you look down, the same. Blue sky and clouds, suddenly, water. Suddenly against the blue sky a spray of jewels.

Pardon, monsieur, I said. I did not mean to do it."

--Kathryn Davis, Versailles: A Novel 

Friday, January 11, 2019

Film Friday: A screenshot from Marie Antoinette (1938)

Film Friday: a day for sharing movie stills, production art, film analysis and anything film related!


A screenshot from Marie Antoinette (1938); from the scene where the newly-coined dauphine Marie Antoinette sits with her husband on their wedding night.

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Book Thursday: Four French covers for 'Destin de Reine' by Victoria Holt

Book Thursday: a day for anything and everything books; reviews, highlights, and more.


One of my little hobbies is collecting images of book covers, and historical fiction novels from the 50s-60s are a treasure trove of interesting covers Destin de Reine is the French translation of The Queen's Confession: The Story of Marie Antoinette, a first person historical novel written by Eleanor Hibbert and published under her Victoria Holt pseudonym. When comparing these four covers, it's easy to see which reading demographic each edition was targeting--from historical romance to the bodice ripper audience. 

Which of these 4 is your favorite?





Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Portrait Wednesday: Maria Theresa of Savoy by Giuseppe Duprà, circa 1762

Portrait Wednesday: a day for sharing portraits of Marie Antoinette and her contemporaries.


This lovely royal portrait by Giuseppe Duprà is a depiction of a young Maria Theresa of Savoy, better known as the comtesse d'Artois, circa 1762. This portrait dates to about 10 years before she was sent to France to become the bride of the comte d'Artois. 

Giuseppe Duprà, for his part, completed numerous paintings of royal families, with a heavy emphasis on the Savoyard princesses. Seven of these portraits still hang today in the Palazzina di caccia of Stupinigi, or the one of the former hunting lodges of the royal house of Savoy. 

A closer look at the portrait reveals a wealth of details signifying the social status of the young girl who was, after all, a princess. Her gown of deep green features rich white or silver embroidery, and is covered with a delicate lace apron and flouncing sleeves. Behind her, a rich blue cloak can be seen with peaks of ermine, one of the foremost types of furs used to signify someone's wealth and status. Her pose is simple and dignified, and most definitely reminiscent of adult portraits of royal and upper-class women in this same era.

About 10 years after this portrait was completed, the Austrian ambassador comte de Mercy would write of the princess--now comtesse d'Artois: "...as for the comtesse d’Artois, she does not speak, seems interested in nothing, and her look of shyness and indifference is highly unpopular here. [Marie Antoinette] is very kind to her."

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

Inspired Tuesday: À La Rose from Maison Francis Kurkdjian

Inspired Tuesday: a day to share anything and everything inspired by Marie Antoinette and her world.

[image: Fragrantica]

Maison Francis Kurkdjian is a fragrance house founded in 2009 under the collaboration of the perfurmer Francis Kurkdjian and Marc Chaya, who is the co-founder and current president of Maison Francis Kurkdjian.

À la rose was inspired by the famous portrait of Marie Antoinette by Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun which depicts the queen holding a single rose, along with Marie Antoinette's known love of roses at her Petit Trianon gardens.

À la rose's note profile features two unique rose scents: Damascena rose from Bulgaria and  Centifolia rose from Grasse, which give the perfume an interesting soft, light rose that is quite different from typical strong rose perfumes. The perfume's top notes are a touch of bergamot and orange, followed by the middle rose notes (other middle notes include violet and magnolia) with some woody cedar musky accord at the base.

The end result of this floral concoction is a rose perfume that is strikingly soft, clean, and gentle without being too overpowering or too weak.  

Since it's original release as an eau de parfum, Maison Francis Kurkdjian has expanded the À la rose line to many different scented products, including: scented body cream, body oil, scented hair mist, shower cream, and hand cream.

If you'd like to test it out without splurging on a full bottle, small samples are available through Lucky Scent.

Monday, January 7, 2019

Music Monday: Le Versailles secret de Marie-Antoinette soundtrack by Renaud Barbier

Introducing Music Monday: a day for contemporary music, soundtracks and other tunes related to Marie Antoinette.


Le Versailles Secret de Marie-Antoinette is the latest documentary from Arte focusing on the life and times of Marie Antoinette. The documentary is especially focused on the Petit Trianon, the Queen's Hamlet, and the recent restoration of the Queen's House which brought the deteriorating building back to its former charm.

One of the most underrated aspects of any documentary is the score. For Le Versailles Secret de Marie-Antoinette, Arte commissioned Renaud Barbier to create a completely original soundtrack. The soundtrack is beautiful and varied--at times dainty and light, others haunting and moving; but always evocative of Marie Antoinette and the private world she cultivated at Trianon.

The soundtrack can currently be listened to as a whole on YouTube or purchased as an MP3 album on Amazon.

Sunday, January 6, 2019

Museum Sunday: A plate from the perles et barbeaux service

Introducing Museum Sunday: a day for highlighting objects, books, and other items from the collections and lives of Marie Antoinette and her contemporaries.


This plate was created for the most recognizable and popular of all the Marie Antoinette Sèvres services: the perles et barbeaux ("pearls and cornflowers") service, which was commissioned from Sèvres in 1781 and exhibited at Versailles on January 2nd, 1782. The art design is believed to have been done by Michel-Gabriel Commelin. It is generally believed that the service was used for the Petit Trianon due to the simplistic design.


Unlike a few other Sèvres designs created for Marie Antoinette, the official Sèvres factory perles et barbeaux service was reserved exclusively for Marie Antoinette. However, its design was such an immense success that it was copied by other factories throughout Europe.

The service consisted of 295 pieces, including 96 plates worth 30 livres each. As of today, the service is scattered around the world in both museums and private collections.

Saturday, January 5, 2019

'What They Said' Saturday: "I like this wild spot."

Introducing 'What They Said' Saturday: a day for quotations of all kinds, including excerpts from letters written by Marie Antoinette and her contemporaries, memoirs, non-fiction, novels and everything in between.



"I like this wild spot: they tell me I have bad taste--which is very probable ... I prefer this forest and rocks and untrimmed trees to those at Compiegne, which resembles a park more than a forest. The chateau here is bad, it is true; but I like antiques, I feel that St. Louis, Francois Premier, and my dear Henri Quatre live here, and I am happy in my small entresol. I am in a little palace--alone in the midst of every one--and I find it charming. I feel well here, and at Compiegne as though I were dying."

Thus wrote Marie Josèphe de Saxony, the second wife of Louis, the Dauphin (1729-1765) to her brother during one of the French court's stays at the chateau de Fontainebleau. Marie Josèphe greatly disliked Compiegne--though it was her husband's favorite lodging--and referred to its garden as "melancholy."

In calling it her "wild spot," Marie Josèphe was likely thinking of the original English garden at Fontainebleau, which was designed during the reign of Henry IV. During the time when Marie Josèphe would have enjoyed its charming and isolated sights, the garden also retained a Renaissance-style grotto built during the reign of Francis I. In the 19th century, the English garden would be greatly expanded into a larger English park, which included a stream, boulders, and extended paths through trees planted in a natural style.

Marie Josèphe couldn't have known that the 'little palace' she so greatly enjoyed would be the scene of her next tragedy: the death of her husband. In the fall following his death, Louis XV ordered that the French court not travel to Fontainebleau as they were accustomed to doing in order to spare Marie Josèphe "more sorrows."

Friday, January 4, 2019

Film Friday: A storyboard for Marie Antoinette (1938)

Introducing Film Friday: a day for sharing movie stills, production art, film analysis and anything film related!

[credit: Profiles in History, via icollector.com]
This atmospheric storyboard was sketched by Stanley Johnson for Cedric Gibbons, the production designer for the 1938 MGM 'Marie Antoinette' film.

Thursday, January 3, 2019

Book Thursday: 'Marie-Antoinette et ses soeurs' by Anne-Marie Desplat-Duc (February 2019)

Introducing Book Thursday: a day for anything and everything books; reviews, highlights, and more.
 
[image credit: Flammarion/via Amazon.fr]


Marie-Antoinette et ses soeurs (Marie Antoinette and her sisters) is a new French children's novel series from author Anne-Marie Desplat-Duc, set to be released in February of 2019. The series will follow the adventures of a young Marie Antoinette in her home country of Austria. The first novel, Premiers secrets, begins in 1760 with the marriage of Joseph II to Isabella of Parma.

Premier secrets can be pre-ordered from Amazon.fr and other French book retailers.

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Portrait Wednesday: Marie Antoinette In a Riding Outfit by Joseph Kreutzinger, 1771

Introducing Portrait Wednesday: a day for sharing portraits of Marie Antoinette and her contemporaries.


This charming pastel portrait of Marie Antoinette as a teenager--done just a year after her arrival in France--was completed by Joseph Kreutzinger in 1771. The portrait depicts Marie Antoinette wearing a red riding outfit, complete with exquisite buttons, lace and other fine details as befitting the dauphine of France.

Although Maria Theresa disliked her daughter's habit of riding with the hunt, it was the empress herself who requested a portrait of Marie Antoinette in a riding outfit.

In 1771, she wrote to the Austrian ambassador to France, the comte de Mercy:  

"Could you send me her portrait on horseback, in a hat, and quite small, if this is possible, even if the likeness is not there?"

Maria Theresa was notorious for searching for a portrait of Marie Antoinette that captured her daughter's likeness, especially since a previous portrait by Jean-Étienne Liotard was not well received by the empress, who wrote that it was "not ... precisely successful." Shortly thereafter, Mercy wrote back to the empress with good news:

"I believe I have at least found a painter who will succeed in painting a portrait of the Dauphine, very like, in her riding dress; the work will be executed under my eyes; but several weeks must elapse before it can be finished and brought to the necessary degree of perfection."

The pastel portrait was completed without much delay and sent to Maria Theresa, who loved the portrait so much she had several copies made with oil paints. She wrote movingly to her daughter about how pleased she was with the portrait:

"I have received your portrait in pastel, very like; it is a joy to me and to all the family: it is in my cabinet where I work and [a small copy is] in my bedroom where I work at night. Thus, I have you always with me, under my eyes--as in my heart you are ever and deeply enshrined."
 

Sources

Letter translations: Marie Antoinette, Her Early Youth by Helen A. Younghusband

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Inspired Tuesday: Vintage 'Marie Antoinette' wallpaper

Introducing Inspired Tuesday: a day to share anything and everything inspired by Marie Antoinette and her world.

[image credit: Gent, Design Museum/© KIK-IRPA, Bruxelles (X047580)]

This lovely illustration is a detail from a vintage Bon Teint wallpaper, circa 1920-1930, titled 'Marie Antoinette au Petit Trianon.' The Marie Antoinette was certainly in vogue during the 1920s and 1930s, and the juxtaposition of the quaint hamlet in the background with the fancy voluminous gowns of Marie Antoinette and her ladies seems like the perfect touch for the walls of a sitting room or parlor. I haven't been able to find a full image of the wallpaper, but I think it's safe to say it was a repeating toile design.

What would be the perfect room in your home for this charming (if dated) wallpaper?

happy new year! what's in store for 2019

Happy New Year! I haven't been the most consistent blogger this year, but with a new year comes a new determination to actually keep a blogging schedule. That's why for 2019, I've created a special themed schedule to ensure that at least 1 post is made per day, with allowances for more during special events or when I simply feel like it. I hope you'll enjoy this blog in the new year, and thank you for reading!