I have been working very hard these past few months to bring you this new blog, and it is heartening to see at long last the result of these efforts. Where should I begin? You may notice we now have 7 articles on the home page. I picked some long time favorites, and a few […]
Yes, Tuesday was Mardi Gras, yesterday was Ash Wednesday and we have now entered the season of Lent. An opportunity to look back at last year’s posts on these topics: – The boisterous celebration of Carnival in Paris, – The hardly more decorous happenings in Versailles, where, under Louis XV, the Ball of the Yew […]
It is snowing in Auvergen already, but the weather in and around Paris is still mild. So I will nevertheless post this Fragonard, L’hiver (Winter) from the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This is an early work (1755) and his manner is still very close to that of Boucher, though there […]
The past week has left me little time for posting, between extra work to be completed at the office before year end, research on my third novel and, last but not least, the school break. Now I will be heading for Tours and Bordeaux for a family reunion to celebrate the holiday season. So I […]
Sandra Gulland asks these fascinating questions in Baroque Explorations. We have been talking quite a bit about Louis XIV and the conception of the Palace of Versailles lately. Well, Fouquet’s Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte (below) was the inspiration for it all…
For those new to the blog, For The King is my second novel.So what’s up? For one thing, the publication date is summer 2010. I even know of the specific month, but will wait until it is carved in stone to announce it here. This in turn triggers a series of deadlines: choice of title, […]
I wish to bring to your attention this excellent post at Glass of Fashion. Indeed it is Louis XVI, with his wry sense of humor, who coined the term puce (which means “flea” in French) to describe the color of one of Marie-Antoinette’s dresses. That was years before the French Revolution, but she obviously loved that […]
To American Moms at least (French Moms have to wait until the last Sunday in May.) To celebrate the occasion, here is Titian’s Madonna and Child with Saint Catherine, also known as the Madonna of the Rabbit. Painted in 1530, and the property of the Louvre. A tribute to the Blessed Virgin, maternal love and […]
To illustrate this post, I chose once again one of the images of the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. An extraordinary illustration of the following passages from the Gospels recounting the tenebrae that marked the afternoon of the death of Christ: “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land […]
Very briefly, to supplement my prior post. First, Ingrid at Fashion is My Muse informs us that to the famous Court dress, which may have belonged to Marie-Antoinette, at the Royal Ontario Museum is on its way to Versailles for the upcoming Court Pomp and Royal Ceremony: Court Dress in Europe, 1650-1800 exhibition, from March […]
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