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| Jules-Marc-Antoine Frappaz, Marie Antoinette's Boudoir. 1876, oil on canvas. Musée national du Château de Fontainebleau. |
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| Dining room from Kirtlington Park, Oxfordshire, 1742–48 Designed by John Sanderson (English, active from 1730, died 1774) Wood, plaster, and marble H. 20 ft. (6.09 m), L. 36 ft. (10.97 m), W. 24 ft. (7.32 m) Fletcher Fund, 1931 (32.53.1). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
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| Poitiers Cathedral, 1840s. |
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| Wallpaper from Van Rensselaer Manor House. ca. 1768, Tempera on watercolor paper. Gift of Dr. Howard Van Rensselaer, 1928. Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
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| Rick Harrison, Wintery Chatsworth. 2005, Flickr. |
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| Cathedral of Notre Dame, West façade; Gallery of Kings. |
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| Jacques-Ange Gabriel, Chateau Fontainebleau. France, 1754. Hartill Art Associates Inc. |
If you have ever wanted to step back in time and visit 18th century France at its best, now is your chance. The Getty is hosting an exhibition called Paris: Life & Luxury. Life & Luxury is all about the insane impact the French culture had on the rest of the world; the exhibition sets out to prove why that was. The exhibition features pieces from 18th century France, and the timeline set up is what really transports the visitor.
. The book discusses aspects from the show and of course, life in 18th century France. Some topics of interest are 18th century fashion, the latest in technology, ritual of the morning toilette, and my favorite: architecture for privacy! Did I mention it features many wonderful full color images of the artifacts from the show?
Let's discuss panniers, aka false hips! In the first part of the century women were still wearing their panniers in a pyramidal or cone shaped fashion. The cone morphed into a bigger, full dome shape, and in 1711, as one male observer noted in The Spectator, "The hooped petticoat is made to keep us at a distance."
Passing through a doorway was not an easy task when donning an enormous hooped petticoat. Ladies would sometimes do an elegant turn to the left or right to glide through gracefully. Another option was to press down on the hoop and make it collapse enough to get through. But double doors were a welcomed architectural feature, making passing through easy and proper. 
Spring of 1746 found Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson pregnant, and her lover, Louis XV on his way out of town for a campaign. For a relaxing and restful spring, Madame du Pompadour was set up at the château de Crécy. The property she had always liked, it was a bit in the country, and not quite to Louis' taste ...yet. But to make sure she was both content and comfortable (the country would be nice while in her condition) he made the purchase, for the low price of 650,000 livres.
She would spend a great part of her finances on buildings and decorating but Crécy was her first big project. She even had the gardens redone!
Even the palaces and pleasure grounds of the ci-devant royalty are respected as national property, and , as such, are carefully preserved.
The greater part of the furniture has been removed from Versailles- some of the paintings remain. Those by the best Masters have been sent to the Gallery of the Louvre, which is now the National Museum, where the collection greatly exceeds any other exhibition of the fine arts in the world. It is under the care of a committee, appointed to protect the arts, and is maintained in the most superb style. Such is the war, which these Goths and Vandals wage against the arts!
The late Queen's favorite residence of St Cloud remains as when she occupied it . The paintings will be sent to the museum, and the furniture will be sold.
This piece is called Louis XV donnant la Paix à l'Europe - Louis XV Bringing Peace to Europe. The work was done by François Lemoyne, a rival painter to de Troy. The piece can be viewed at the salon de la Paix. 
la Salon de la Guerre, Salon of War. The painting was placed there in 1729, and hangs above the mantelpiece surrounded by 6 busts of the Caesars.
In the painting, our main figure is Louis XV. Peace appears in the form of the olive branch between him and Europe. An ideal King, taking care of France right away! In the portrait he is only 19.
. It is rather saucy, with interesting details and accounts from those who inhabited the glamorous palace. From the time of the Sun King to Louis XVI, this 'biography' recalls interesting bits of history that took place under the guilt roofs of the Palace. The sheer gossip and juicy stories keep the pages turning.
At Versailles chamber pots were common as well, if not universal, and in the eighteenth century, despite attempts to stop the practice, servants on the upper stories frequently emptied them into the interior courts below. The dauphine Marie-Antoinette was once hit as she crossed the kings inner courtyards beneath the numerous windows of the king's mistress, Madame du Barry.
The Progress of Love is a group of four canvas paintings by Fragonard. The commission came from Madame Du Barry, between 1770 and 1773, to adorn the walls of her pavilion at Louveciennes. This set of paintings are extra fun because, Du Barry decided she did not want them after Fragonard had already created them. There are theories why she decided to refuse them but the most fun is that all the male figures in the paintings resembled King Louis XV! I am sure that there were other reasons -
besides, everyone knew she was his favorite anyway!
The Pursuit is set, along with the other panels, in a pleasure garden. The exact place we all wish we could hang out, all day, everyday! Highlighted by warm sunlight, three young girls lay before a fountain at play. Our leading lady sees the boy to the right, who is hidden behind a garden element and camouflaged by his pale clothing.
particular tree bends over the top of the fountain, framing this element. Which leads me to her companions.
The suitor really does not deserve this treatment! He is polished and amiable. He is not hard on the eyes either. And if he is rendered after Louis, well, the we can agree that he wasn't unfortunate in the looks department as a boy! He approaches her, removes his hat and offers her a rose from the garden. His gracious gesture is right in line with courtly etiquette, obviously his mother taught him well. Imagine the game he'll have when he is in his 30's!
It is agreed Marie felt confined to the strict rituals of court life, and her choice of keeping an English style garden at Trianon (her retreat from Versailles) is visual proof of a separation from the formal bounds of her life. The English gardens represented freedom more so than the French formal gardens* because with the later your eye was bound to only look where the designer directed you. Whereas the former style allows your eye to roam freely across the landscape. In fact it becomes difficult to tell where the 'garden' ends and the landscape begins because it is designed so naturalistic.
