Vigee-Lebrun-Lady-Hamilton-as-the-Persian-Sibyl

Emma, Lady Hamilton, seen by Louise-Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun

I enjoy following Louise-Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, one the most famous and successful portraitists of her time, to the private apartments of Queen Marie-Antoinette at Versailles, to Regency England, or to the salons of Napoléon’s sisters. Today we will accompany Madame Vigée-Lebrun to Italy, where she emigrated as early as 1789, at the onset of the French Revolution. After visiting the court of Turin, then Rome, she headed for Naples, where reigned Queen Maria Carolina of Austria, Marie-Antoinette’s elder (and favorite) sister. The British ambassador there, in the midst of the international political turmoil, was no other than Sir William Hamilton. His companion was a young beauty, Amy Lyon, who went by the name of Emma Hart. Let us listen to Madame Lebrun’s Memoirs, as she recalls her acquaintance with the future Lady Hamilton:

Sir William Hamilton, the British Ambassador to Naples, came to me and begged that my first portrait in this town should be that of the splendid woman he presented to me. This was Madame Hart, who soon after became Lady Hamilton, and who was famous for her beauty… I then painted Madame Hart as a bacchante reclining by the edge of the sea, holding a goblet in her hand. Her beautiful face had much animation… she had a great quantity of fine chestnut hair, sufficient to cover her entirely, and thus, as a bacchante with flying hair, she was admirable to behold.

Vigee-Lebrun: Lady Hamilton as Ariadne

The life of Lady Hamilton is a romance. Her maiden name was Emma Lyon. Her mother, it is said, was a poor servant, and there is some disagreement as to her birthplace. At the age of thirteen she entered the service of an honest townsman of Hawarden as a nurse, but, tired of the dull life she led, and believing she could obtain a more agreeable situation in London, she betook herself thither. The Prince of Wales told me that he had seen her at that time in wooden shoes at the stall of a fruit vendor, and that, although she was very poorly clad, her pretty face attracted attention (more…)



Marie Antoinette van Meytens

Marie Antoinette’s unsung legacy to French food: the croissant

If you watched Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, you know that the Queen liked to be surrounded by pyramids of gorgeous pastries and followed a strict macaroon-and-champagne diet. Or did she?

Marie Antoinette van Meytens

Well, according to contemporary accounts, not at all. The etiquette required the King and Queen to take some of their meals in public, in front of the courtiers and visitors. Anyone decently dressed was admitted in Versailles, and many came to the Palace to watch the royal couple eat.

The Marquise de La Tour du Pin, who was a lady-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette, attended those occasions. She notes in her Memoirs that “the King ate with a hearty appetite, but the Queen did not remove her gloves, nor did she unfold her napkin, in which she was very ill-advised.”

Marie Antoinette porcelain cup

Marie-Antoinette literally did not touch her food (more…)


Girodet Jean Baptiste Belley

Citizen Jean-Baptiste Belley: from slavery to the Convention Nationale

This Portrait of Citizen Jean-Baptiste Belley by the famous French artist Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, caught my eye, even though I knew nothing of the model. This painting is – literally – revolutionary.

Not because it represents a Black man. Representations of men and women of African descent in early-modern European paintings were not uncommon, as explained by Carlyn Beccia. But, with exceptions such as Juan de Pareja, assistant to Velasquez (thanks to Susan Holloway Scott for the link!) these had no name. They were simply “generic” Blacks, usually depicted in a subservient position.

Citizen Jean Baptiste Belley by Girodet

In this portrait not only does Citizen Belley have a name, but he also holds high public office, as attested by the tricolor sash tied around his waist and the tricolor plume on his hat. Who was this Belley? I wanted to know.

The most detailed information I was able to find about him was on the site of the Association de Généalogie d’Haiti (in French.)

It seems that Belley was born on the coast of West Africa in 1746 or 1747. Around the age of two, he was abducted and sold into slavery in Saint-Domingue, modern-day Haiti.

Little is known of his life as a slave, except that he was allowed to pursue a trade and earn enough money to eventually purchase his own freedom. He clearly received an education, either before or after his emancipation (more…)



Tower-of-the-Temple-1795-cropped

The Temple: Napoléon’s political jail

The Tower of the Temple in 1795

For the King relates the circumstances of the Rue Nicaise conspiracy, a failed attempt to assassinate Napoléon Bonaparte on Christmas Eve 1800. Indeed Napoléon had a surfeit of political enemies. They fell into two opposite camps: the Chouans were Royalists and wanted to restore King Louis XVIII to the throne, while the Jacobins yearned to return the ideals of liberty and equality promoted by the Revolution.

Their ultimate goals couldn’t have been further apart, but their immediate aim was the same: they wanted to rid France of Napoléon Bonaparte (more…)


Jean-Cottereau-known-as-Jean-Chouan

The Chouans, Jean Chouan, the Catholic and Royal Army and the fall of Napoléon

On Christmas Eve 1800, a group of Chouans, royalist insurgents, detonated a bomb along Napoléon Bonaparte’s path. This assassination attempt provides the backdrop of my new novel, For the King. Readers have asked me for more information about them. Why the name Chouans? What drove them to political violence? Were they a major political force?

Jean Cottereau, known as Jean Chouan

First the name comes from one of the early leaders of the insurgency, Jean Cottereau, nicknamed Jean Chouan (more…)



18th century court gown

18th century court costume and Marie-Antoinette

I saw the Court Pomp and Royal Ceremony exhibition at Versailles on its closing day last June and would have hated to miss it. My expectations were very high, and yet I could not help being somewhat disappointed, not by the quality of the objects on display, which were magnificent, but by their scarcity. I should have known better, of course: how many 18th century court costumes could have survived till the 21st century?

Interestingly, the few that did have been preserved in the royal collections of northern Europe, for instance the coronation gown (more…)


Hydrangea Redoute

Hydrangeas, Queen Hortense, the Hortensia Diamond

Hortense de Beauharnais Girodet

My thanks go to Felio, a reader of this blog, who is a florist by trade and gave me the idea of flower-themed posts. The first that came to mind were hydrangeas, because my paternal grandmother, gardener extraordinaire, used to grow them in the mountains of Auvergne.

Hydrangea by Redoute

Needless to say, they are not hardy enough to resist that harsh climate, but my grandmother was not the sort of person to let such details stand in the way of her gardening wishes (more…)