Marie-Antoinette (EN)

Biographical Article

Marie-Antoinette Josephe Jeanne de Lorraine, Archduchess of Austria, was the youngest of the daughters and the eleventh of the twelve children of François Ier (1708-1765), Duke of Lorraine, Emperor of the Holy Empire, and Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780). Born in Vienna on November 2, 1755, she lived mainly at Schönbrunn Palace before marrying the Dauphin of France, the future Louis XVI (1754-1793), in the Royal Chapel of Versailles on May 16, 1770. She became Queen of France and Navarre on May 10, 1774, and from 1781 onwards she gained increasing influence over the king. Her reckless conduct, prodigality, Austrian origins and the gossip spread by her enemies made her extremely unpopular with the courtiers and the French people. She left the Palace of Versailles with the royal family under duress in October 1789 for the Tuileries in Paris. Following her failed attempt with the king and their children to escape and reach the border, and their subsequent arrest at Varennes, Marie-Antoinette was imprisoned in the Temple on August 13, 1792, then in the Conciergerie on August 1, 1793. After a speedy trial, she was sentenced to death by the revolutionary tribunal on October 15, 1793 and guillotined the following day in the place de la Révolution, today the place de la Concorde. She had four children: Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, known as Madame Royale (1778-1851), later Duchess of Angoulême; the dauphin, born in 1780, Louis-Joseph-Xavier of France, died in 1789; Louis-Charles, known as Louis XVII (1785-1795) and Sophie-Hélène-Béatrix, who died at age 1 in 1787.

The Petits Cabinets of Marie-Antoinette at Versailles

During her childhood at Schönbrunn Palace, Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793) could admire the two Chinese cabinets that her mother, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780), had arranged to present her collection of oriental lacquers and porcelains. After being crowned queen of France, Marie-Antoinette selected the rarest models of porcelain from China and Japan, all carefully adorned with gilt bronze mounts in the latest fashion, with great discernment.

Marie-Antoinette presented her collection of lacquerware and oriental porcelain in her petits cabinets at the Palace of Versailles. In February 1781, architect Richard Mique (1728-1794) updated the decor of her boudoir, also known as the Meridian cabinet (le Cabinet de la Méridienne). In arabesque style, the paneling carved by Jules-Hugues Rousseau, also called Rousseau the Elder (1743-1806), and Jean-Siméon Rousseau, also called Rousseau de La Rottière (1747-1820), presented attributes of conjugal love, an allusion to the birth of the impending male heir, the Dauphin. At the end of 1783, Richard Mique was commissioned to have the queen's great inner cabinet, her Golden Cabinet (le Cabinet doré), completely panelled with antique carved decoration. The queen also installed a library and a library annex containing several works containing fundamental information on China, including the Description géographique, historique, chronologique, politique et physique de l’empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie chinoise…,  published by the Jesuit Jean-Baptiste Du Halde (1674-1743). The Queen took this copy with her to the Tuileries (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, réserve des livres rares, Rés. Fol. O2N39).

When revolutionaries invaded the palace on October 5 and 6, 1789, the royal family had to leave Versailles for the Tuileries Palace in Paris. Anxious to preserve her personal collections, the Queen entrusted the Parisian marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre (c. 1725-1796) with the task of securing the works of art adorning her inner rooms. Daguerre instructed his collaborator and future partner Martin-Éloi Lignereux (1750-1809) to draw up a complete inventory, pack up the contents, and transfer them to Paris. The list made on October 10, 1789 details the arrangement of the effects placed in the Golden and the Meridian Cabinets (L’Intermédiaire, 1908, col. 880-884). These belongings were then stored with the marchand-merciers, and Marie-Antoinette no longer worried about them, even if she was probably thinking of having them deposited at the Tuileries or the château de Saint-Cloud. In the autumn of 1793, these goods became troublesome for Daguerre and Lignereux, and, after a new census, the Temporary Arts Commission (la Commission temporaire des Arts) decided to transfer them to the Museum (Tuetey, 1916, p. 286-290).

The 1789 inventory describes several oriental porcelains in the Golden Cabinet. On one of the four tables with a petrified wood top were arranged: "a celestial blue porcelain fountain, two vases idem bottle shape, two parrots idem, a cat idem" (L'Intermédiaire, 1908, col. 881). The six pieces sent to the Museum in 1793 are now exhibited at the Louvre with the exception of the “reclining cat, of the same porcelain, on a gilded bronze cushion, supported on a base of Italian cherry marble. Total height 6 inches [16.24 cm]”, which disappeared after 1833. The porcelain feline from the Kangxi period (1662-1722), to which was added a gilt bronze cushion forged by François Rémond (c. 1745-1812) and a base in morello cherry marble, was delivered to the queen through the goldsmith-jeweller Ange-Joseph Aubert (1736-1785) (Bastien, 2013, p. 44). On the other hand, it was probably the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre or Jean-Baptiste Pierre Le Brun (1748-1813) who sold the sovereign the perfume fountain with turquoise glaze (Paris, musée du Louvre, OA 7), the two "vases shape of a six-sided bottle, same porcelain, trimmed with rolled arabesque handles and chains in matte gilt bronze" (Paris, musée du Louvre, OA 5267), and the "two parrots, same blue porcelain, placed on a kind of purple rock, mounted in gilt bronze" (Paris, musée du Louvre, OA 9).

The Meridian contained the most spectacular oriental porcelain. The "two pieces of purple porcelain" described in 1789 (L'Intermédiaire, 1908, col. 884) actually referred to the magnificent pair of large eggplant-covered ewers garnished with gilt bronze attributed to Pierre Gouthière (1732-1813). Preserved in a private collection, these water jugs can be recognised by the description given in 1793: "Two oblong vases of equal size, with a spout shaped like an ewer, of old porcelain […] violet colour, cut in the middle by ornate hoops of matte gilt bronze, with scrolling consoles on one of the sides where small satyrs are seated: the said consoles resting on heads of rams holding in their mouths vine barnacles. The beaks adorned with swans* [*sic, written singe (monkey) rather than cygne (swan)]; in front, a bacchante's head and similar ornaments; the plinth is also adorned with bronzes, with four lion claw feet and arabesque ornaments. All are very well made. Total height, 21 ½ inches [58.20 cm]” (Tuetey, 1916, p. 303-304. Caisse 1-Art. 25). Objects of remarkable beauty from the Kangxi period (1662-1722), very few copies of these Chinese porcelain duomu appear among Enlightenment collectors. Those owned by Marie Antoinette have an intensely colored background enhanced by the rich gilt bronze mounts made up of arabesques, flowers, pearls, trophies, heads of bacchantes and protomes of a ram supporting scrolling consoles which once served as supports for small satyrs. Richly decorated with gilded bronze, bowls placed on Japanese porcelain trays with Kakiemon decoration also decorated the Meridian (Bastien, 2013, p. 38-40).

All these superb, superbly-mounted porcelains complemented magnificent furniture delivered by the ébéniste Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806). In 1783, the Queen ordered a set of incredibly luxurious furniture for her Golden Cabinet. This consisted of a secretary, a chest of drawers, and a corner element veneered with Japanese lacquer panels decorated with a magnificent chiseled and gilt-bronze trim decorated with flowers and presenting the figure of the Queen. The order was carried out by Riesener, who was the cabinetmaker appointed to the Crown. It was completed in 1784 by a writing table also covered with three Japanese lacquer panels, bearing the stamp of Adam Weisweiler (1744-1820), but executed under the direction of the marchand-mercier Dominique (circa 1740-1796). This extremely precious furniture left Versailles for the Queen's apartments at the Château de Saint-Cloud, as the Queen now favoured this new residence, acquired for her by Louis XVI in 1785. Today, the chest of drawers and the secretary are kept in New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 20.155.11 and 20.155.12). The writing table was lost during the Revolution and later bought by Empress Eugénie (1826-1920) (Paris, Musée du Louvre, OA 5509).

The walls of the Queen's chamber at Saint-Cloud were hung with a pekin with a white background and painted with Chinese figures. In this house, porcelain from the Far East was stored safely in a cupboard in the Queen's apartments, as specified in the report drawn up in Saint-Cloud during the autumn of 1794. Under the number 2032 are described "two potpourris of old porcelain from China mounted in ormolu gilt copper", under the number 2034: "two small Chinese porcelain magot figures carrying host and forming potpourris placed on pedestals and ormolu gilt bronze”; and, under the number 2035, "two celadon porcelain bulls supporting two pagodas and placed on pedestals decorated with rosettes and four small feet in copper gilded with ormolu". These come from a purchase made through the jeweller Aubert during the sale of the Comte de Merle (1723-1793) in 1784 (Bastien V., 2013, p. 36-38).

The Queen's Lacquerware

Marie-Antoinette's exceptional collection of Japanese lacquer objects was partly built thanks to a bequest from her mother, Empress Marie-Theresa of Austria, who had a penchant for the arts of the Far East. A set of around fifty boxes arrived at the Palace of Versailles in May 1781, and the ébéniste Jean-Henri Riesener (1734-1806) delivered two corner cupboards and a display case veneered with lacquer panels to present this inheritance in the Queen’s Golden Cabinet at the Palace of Versailles. In reality, the Sovereign's first lacquer object might well have been a box that her mother sent her for the birth of Madame Royale (1778-1851).

Marie-Antoinette swiftly added to this collection with several acquisitions made through renowned Parisian marchand-merciers, including Julliot, Dominique Daguerre (circa 1740-1796) and the merchant and expert Jean-Baptiste Pierre Le Brun (1748-1813). Thus, the latter acquired by order of the Queen several rare lacquers upon the dispersal of the collections of the Duchess of Mazarin (1735-1781), in particular a silver-mounted kiosque with an incense box placed on a tray in the shape of a plum blossom (Paris, musée du Louvre, MR 380-86, MR 380-87 and Palais de Versailles, MR 380-19). During the Duchess of Mazarin's sale, Le Brun also acquired for the Queen a double-tiered hexagonal box with gold background and landscapes (Paris, Musée Guimet, MR 380-70), which also came from the collections of Jean by Jullienne (1686-1766), then of Pierre-Louis-Paul Randon de Boisset (1708-1776). In 1783, the dispersal of the collection of Barthélemy-Augustin Blondel d'Agincourt (1719-1783) enabled Marie-Antoinette to acquire through the dealer Claude-François Julliot (1727-1794) a new rectangular box in the shape of a go game with a mosaic top and handle in the shape of an elongated Chinese figure or karoko (Château de Versailles, MR 380-78). In 1787, the expert Le Brun also procured for the sovereign a rare small dog in lacquer with enamel eyes, which figured in the collections of Randon de Boisset and then Chevalier Lambert (Château de Versailles, MR 380-90). The dealer Dominique Daguerre also contributed to enriching this collection. In February 1785, he contacted the bronzier François Rémond (circa 1745 or 1747-1812) to have a gilt bronze mount adorn a square lacquer box to form a writing desk decorated on the surface with a representation of the great poetess Ono  no Komachi (834-900) (Paris, musée du Louvre, MR 380-76). The lacquers of Marie-Antoinette preserved at the time of the French Revolution are now kept at the Musée Guimet, the Musée du Louvre, and the Palais de Versailles.