MARIE ANTOINETTE’S PETIT TRIANON COMES TO SAN FRANCISCO
27 October 2007The Legion of Honor Hosts World-Exclusive Exhibition
By Seán Martinfield
Sentinel Fine Arts Critic
Copyright © 2007 San Francisco Sentinel
From November 17th through February 17th, 2008 the contents of Marie Antoinette’s private chateau, Le Petit Trianon, will be on display at San Francisco’s beautiful Legion of Honor. This is the first time the contents of the Petit Trianon have been shown together in an exhibition outside of France. The Petit Trianon is being restored and remodeled, allowing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an American museum to stage this kind of an exhibition. Mysteries, myths and legends surround Marie-Antoinette. The stories of her extravagances and excesses, many of them half-truths or exaggerations, ultimately unseated the French monarchy, imprisoned the royal family for years and finally sent them to the guillotine. An exclusive exhibition at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor uses the contents of the Petit Trianon, Marie-Antoinette’s private residence, to look behind the 200-year-old myths and discover concrete evidence of the personal preferences of Marie-Antoinette and how they led to the creation of some of the finest decorative arts of the 18th century.
MARIE-ANTOINETTE, a la rose, 1783. Oil on canvas.
The Petit Trianon is a small château on the grounds of Versailles that served as the queen’s private retreat. Here, the queen could relax in her own home, far away from the constraints of her regimented life. At the Petit Trianon she could choose objects and decorations that reflected her personal style, rather than opting for the taste imposed by the social demands and traditions of the royal court at Versailles.
Rear view of the Chateau de Petit Trianon from the French Garden. Photo Christian Milet
Marie-Antoinette’s husband, King Louis XVI, gave the Petit Trianon to her in 1774. Shortly after, she began an extensive refurnishing and landscaping project to tailor the existing building and the grounds to her taste. The royal architect Richard Mique (1728–1794) led the effort to transform the landscape and build structures to create gardens dedicated to pleasure. The botanical gardens became fashionable, English-style gardens full of winding paths, hillocks and streams imitating a natural landscape. The decorative buildings included a chinoiserie merry-go-round, the classical Temple of Love, and an elegant jewel-box of a theater where the queen participated in amateur plays. The ultimate garden structure was Hameau, a model village of Normandy farmhouses and thatched cottages built around a man-made lake.
The Mill at the Hameau in the gardens of the Petit Trianon. Photo Christian Milet
The landscape artist Hubert Robert assisted in the creation of Hameau, ensuring its picturesque composition with its cottages artfully dilapidated rustic exteriors. Although pains were taken outside to maintain an air of cultivated rusticity, the queen’s private rooms at Hameau were luxurious. A pair of beautifully designed firedogs in the form of goats eating grapes reveals the high standards of design and attention to finish and detail that became hallmarks of the queen’s style. In the exhibition, paintings and drawings bring the long-lost gardens to life.
The interior of the château reflects the personal taste of the queen with its reoccurring floral motifs in furniture, fabric and porcelain. Marie-Antoinette was often connected with the love of flowers, and she chose the images of roses (symbols of her Austrian Hapsburg family), pansies (representing royalty), and cornflowers (her favorite flower at the Petit Trianon) to decorate the royal dinner service at the château.
The furniture of Le Petit Trianon. Photo Christian Milet
Her private study, with its famous mirrored shutters designed to keep out prying eyes, was lined with delicately carved and painted paneling showing white trophies hanging from ribbons on a pale blue background. “These panels are the essence of the style associated with Marie-Antoinette: restrained in form, yet rich in detail, and executed with consummate craftsmanship,” says Martin Chapman, Fine Arts Museums Curator of European Decorative Arts and of the exhibition.
A chair for the Queen!
Marie-Antoinette’s bedroom was called the “Trellis Bedroom,” named for the distinctive design of the furniture, some of the most original ever conceived. Bonnefoy du Plan oversaw the creation of the pieces featuring painstakingly painted or carved trellis and basketwork, floral forms and rustic garlands. The furniture is called “wheat-ear” furniture, named for chairs decorated with lily-of-the-valley, pinecones, and ears of wheat. A mahogany table made by Schwerdfeger is adorned with a frieze of sunflowers and thistle leaves. Dogs’ heads, representing the Queen’s pets, add a charming detail.
As elaborate as these objects seem, these designs were of the more modest scale and simplicity befitting a country house and, for the most part, not as grand as the highly gilded furniture and objects created for public, royal palaces. There are notable exceptions, including the famous Trianon lantern. Lanterns were important in the main rooms of the Petit Trianon because they kept the candles from extinguishing when windows were opened in the summer months. This grand lantern is decorated with paste diamonds and is exquisitely finished in the minutest detail with Cupid’s symbols of love: arrows, bows and a quiver.
The details add up to a picture of one woman’s taste and how its secrecy and expense became a political issue. No matter what a visitor thinks about the Queen’s spending and lifestyle, few would disagree that her personal taste was responsible for objects of great beauty.
The French Pavilion in the Gardens of the Petit Trianon and Marie Antoinette
To purchase tickets on-line:
MARIE-ANTOINETTE & THE PETIT TRIANON AT VERSAILLES
Enjoy Sunday Brunch at the LEGION OF HONOR . Peruse the AUTUMN MENU.
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Seán Martinfield is a native San Franciscan. He is a Theatre Arts Graduate from San Francisco State University, a professional singer, and well-known private vocal coach to Bay Area actors and singers of all ages and persuasions. His clients have appeared in Broadway National Tours including Wicked, Aïda, Miss Saigon, Rent, Bye Bye Birdie, in theatres and cabarets throughout the Bay Area, and are regularly featured in major City events including Diva Fest, Gay Pride, and Halloween In The Castro. As an Internet consultant in vocal development and audition preparation he has published thousands of responses to those seeking his advice concerning singing techniques, professional and academic auditions, and careers in the Performing Arts. Mr. Martinfield’s Broadway clients have all profited from his vocal methodology, “The Belter’s Method”, which is being prepared for publication. If you want answers about your vocal technique, post him a question on AllExperts.com. If you would like to build up your vocal performance chops and participate in the Bay Area’s rich theatrical scene, e-mail him at: sean.martinfield@gmail.com.
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