Two Trianons, Two Women and Versailles
The Petit Trianon, Marie Antoinette's refuge at Versailles, has reopened after a yearlong
restoration, costing just over $7 million. The funding was provided by the Swiss watchmaker Breguet, which once made a timepiece for Louis XVI's queen. This little gem was built by Louis XV for his mistress Madame de Pompadour and completed in 1768. Unfortunately, de Pompadour died before the building was finished, so Louis moved his mistress Madame du Barry into the "cottage" instead. Jacques-Ange Gabriel's design broke with the past and the predominant rococo style of the palace complex. His aesthetic wasn't a rejection of ornamentation and its decorative appeal, but a refined interpretation of the classicism of Greece.
Artwork: designslinger]
When Louis XVI ascended to the throne of France, he gave the little palace to his wife
Marie as a refuge from the oppressive court atmosphere of the main palace. It is rumored that Marie ruled Petit with an iron hand, barring entrance to anyone at anytime, including the King himself. The intimate scale of the house and Gabriel's choice of architectural ornamentation appealed to Antoinette's desire for simplicity. In the restoration, curators said, "they wanted to avoid the stuffy museum feel, making it seem as though the 18th-century French queen and her entourage had just stepped away for a moment."
The Villa Trianon, once the home of the Duc de Nemours, son of Loius Phillipe, sits
directly on the Park of Versailles. It had been sitting vacant for years when another remarkable woman
Elsie de Wolfe, turned the villa into her refuge. She was born in 1865, the daughter of a wealthy New York physician. When her father died, he left his family in financial ruin, and to earn a living Elsie took to the stage. At the age of 40, realizing her acting career was coming to an end, Elsie used her society connections to secure a job decorating a prominent women's club, The Colony, in Manhattan. The design choices she made were in stark contrast to the prevailing high Victorian style which Elsie found overwrought and suffocating. Out with the heavy drapes, dark colors and rooms stuffed with bric-a-brac, her spaces were going to be light, airy and still very tasteful. "I opened the doors and windows of America and let the air and sunshine in," said de Wolfe. She created this effect by lightening room colors, using mirrors and delicately framed furniture, with touches of silver and gold for sparkle.
She has been called the first professional interior decorator, and she has had a substantial
impact on interior design for generations. Her influence extended beyond the rarefied air of New York and European society circles, when she began writing newspaper and magazine columns. In 1913, Elsie published "The House in Good Taste," a collection of her thoughts and ideas which went on to become required reading for the home, as well as the professional, decorator. She purchased Villa Trianon in 1905, with her partner of 13 years Elizabeth (Bessie) Marbury. Elsie spent an entire chapter of the book describing their experience purchasing the house and the choices de Wolfe made in its decoration. In 1925, Elsie shocked her friends, society, and the popular press with her marriage to Sir Charles Mendl. She was 60 years old, apparently had a falling out with Marbury, and the gossip was, that Elsie did it for the title. Until her death at Villa Trianon in 1950, Lady Mendl continued promoting a design philosophy, which Gabriel had embraced centuries before at the Petit Trianon, that good taste can be simple yet elegant and fit for a queen.
Posted by designslinger at 10/2/2008 7:54 AM 
Categories: History, Interior Design, Furniture, Decorative Arts
Categories: History, Interior Design, Furniture, Decorative Arts
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