Tag Archives: Versailles

Queen Victoria in Paris

Queen Victoria in Paris: Watercolours from the Royal Collection, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, CV35 9HZ, until 11th December 2016

Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio (1810-71) Royal visit to Napoleon III: Queen Victoria landing at Boulogne, 18 August 1855 Watercolour © Royal Collection Trust 2016

Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio (1810-71)
Royal visit to Napoleon III: Queen Victoria landing at Boulogne, 18 August 1855
Watercolour
© Royal Collection Trust 2016

This special exhibition commemorates the State Visit of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (with their two eldest children) to Paris in August 1855 and followed a State Visit to Windsor in April of that year by the Emperor Napoleon III and his consort the Empress Eugénie.  It was part of cementing the alliance between Britain and France in the Crimean War.  The forty-four watercolours, generously loaned by Her Majesty the Queen, depict the major events of the nine day visit from their arrival at Boulogne aboard the Royal Yacht onwards.

Eugène-Charles-François Guérard (1821-66) Royal visit to Napoleon III: Queen Victoria's entry into Paris, 18 August 1855 Watercolour © Royal Collection Trust 2016

Eugène-Charles-François Guérard (1821-66)
Royal visit to Napoleon III: Queen Victoria’s entry into Paris, 18 August 1855
Watercolour
© Royal Collection Trust 2016

The watercolours, half of which are being publicly shown for the first time, were either presented to or commissioned by Queen Victoria and became one of her ‘Souvenir Albums’ that recorded events in her marriage to Prince Albert.  I find them all of great interest but am specially drawn to those of her apartments in the Palais de Saint Cloud.

Jean-Baptiste-Fortuné De Fournier (1798-1864) Royal visit to Napoleon III: Queen Victoria's dressing-room at St Cloud Watercolour © Royal Collection Trust 2016

Jean-Baptiste-Fortuné De Fournier (1798-1864)
Royal visit to Napoleon III: Queen Victoria’s dressing-room at St Cloud
Watercolour
© Royal Collection Trust 2016

The significance of the Queen’s visit is summed up by Rosie Razzall, Curator of Prints and Drawings, Royal Collection Trust: “This was a pivotal period in British and French history. After centuries of enmity, France and Britain were never again to fight on opposing sides. A visiting head of state was not received with such popular fervour in France until the Kennedys in 1961, and has been unmatched since.”

Max Berthelin (1811-77) Royal visit to Napoleon III: illuminations at the Hôtel de Ville, 23 August 1855 Watercolour © Royal Collection Trust 2016

Max Berthelin (1811-77)
Royal visit to Napoleon III: illuminations at the Hôtel de Ville, 23 August 1855
Watercolour
© Royal Collection Trust 2016

After Compton Verney this touring exhibition goes on to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter; The Wilson: Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery; and the Bowes Museum, County Durham.

Eugène Louis Lami (1800-90) Royal visit to Napoleon III: the supper in the Salle de Spectacle, Versailles, 25 August 1855 Watercolour © Royal Collection Trust 2016

Eugène Louis Lami (1800-90)
Royal visit to Napoleon III: the supper in the Salle de Spectacle, Versailles, 25 August 1855
Watercolour
© Royal Collection Trust 2016

http://www.comptonverney.org.uk

BOOK REVIEW: A Day with Marie Antoinette

A Day with Marie Antoinette

 Hélène Delalex

Photography by Francis Hammond
 HC w/slipcase, 224 pp., 170 illus. 5 ½ × 9 in. (14 × 22.5 cm)
ISBN: 978-2-08-020210-9
£22.50

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Marie Antoinette has certainly cast a spell over succeeding generations and having seen a portrait of her by Liotard in the exhibition of his works at the Royal Academy last year I can understand why.  A daughter of the Empress Maria Theresa and the wife of Louis XVI she was a person who in turn received approbation, admiration, disapproval, hatred and eventually public execution.

This elegant book takes us into her world and helps us gain a clearer picture of her and her lifestyle.  She certainly was, like Diana, Princess of Wales, a queen of fashion and as her apartments at Versailles and in the Petit Trianon reveal a woman of great taste. When one considers the formality of court life where etiquette ruled every aspect of daily life from rising in the morning to retiring to bed one can understand her wish to escape to a less rigid life away from the Palace.

The beautiful photographs, extracts from her letters all aid us to get a closer glimpse of this fascinating subject and this book is the next best thing to actually meeting her in person.

 

editions.flammarion.com

The Comtesse de Provence’s Music Room

Harry Steen: Recent Paintings, Jonathan Cooper, Park Walk Gallery, 20 Park Walk, London SW10, 5th – 28th November 2015

Round Room, by Harry Steen. Oil on board, 18 x 16ins (45.7 x 40.6cm)

Round Room, by Harry Steen. Oil on board, 18 x 16ins (45.7 x 40.6cm)

This painting caught my eye among the sixteen new works on show in this new exhibition by the Canadian artist Harry Steen.  His inspiration for it was the Music Room in the Pavillon de Musique de Madame which was built for the Comtesse de Provence (Louis XVI’s sister-in-law) near Versailles in 1780.

Steen is a painter of style, elegance and imagination as this show amply proves.

 

http://www.jonathancooper.co.uk

From Versailles to Masterpiece

MASTERPIECE LONDON 2015: From Versailles to Masterpiece

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The Antique Wine Company (AWC) is marking its twenty-fifth anniversary by unveiling a rather special wine case at the Fair. It is made from a three hundred and twenty year old oak tree from Versailles which is reputed to have been one of Marie Antoinette’s favourite trees.

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It became a victim of drought in 2005 and was felled, with the wood being purchased by Cordier Mestrezat of Bordeaux. Their craftsmen then designed and created this unique piece.

It contains four special bottles of wine which are rarely available on the open market –Château Petrus, Château Latour, Château d’Yquem and Domaine de la Romanée Conti La Tache – which are all 1990 vintage, reflecting the AWC’s special anniversary. A real connoisseur’s treat!

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http://www.awc-wine.com

http://www.masterpiecefair.com

BOOK REVIEW – Versailles

A Day at Versailles

Yves Carlier, photography by Francis Hammond

Flammarion; Box edition

ISBN-10: 2080301438

ISBN-13: 978-2080301437

£22.50

Day%20at%20Versailles%20cover

This elegantly slip-covered book reveals some of the elegant interiors and ravishing objects found within this legendary, must-see palace of the French kings. It also shows the glories of the gardens, the Petit Trianon and the dairy farm created as an escape from court life by Marie Antoinette. It’s a delight of a book that you will dip into time and again.

The Grand Perspective viewed from the central window of the Hall of Mirrors. p.43: © Francis Hammond

The Grand Perspective viewed from the central window of the Hall of Mirrors.
p.43:
© Francis Hammond