Versailles, des grands aux petits appartements de la reine

Il ne faut s'imaginer monts et merveilles et bien garder à l'esprit que ces fameux "appartements" répartis sur deux étages ne couvrent en réalité qu'un petit cent mètres carrés. Ma chère soeur avait besoin de respirer à l'abri du protocole, elle n'avait pas besoin de grands espaces.

C'est pas un loft.

Tout l'inverse, de petites pièces où ma soeur aimait à se reposer des contraintes de la cour.

« nouvelle compréhension de l’histoire avec ce paradoxe entre vie publique et vie privée, étiquette et intimité, un extraordinaire condensé d’histoire en quelques mètres carrés »
(Catherine Pégard, présidente du château et du domaine de Versailles)

L'une de ces petites pièces qui n'est pas un loft

Je planifie une visite le plus vite possible.

Fausse note



ils exposent l'horrible collier qui n'a jamais été à Marie-Antoinette.

Marie Antoinette’s private Versailles apartment reopens to the public

The rooms, which were hidden behind a door in the queen’s bedroom, reopen as part of the palace’s 400th anniversary



Marie Antoinette’s private apartment, hidden behind a secret door in her bedroom in the royal palace at Versailles, reopens to the public on Tuesday after a major renovation.

The rooms, including a boudoir, library and billiard room, are spread over two floors overlooking an interior courtyard. They are said to be where France’s last queen first hid during the people’s march on Versailles during the 1789 French Revolution.

The reopening of the discreet but luxurious apartment where Marie Antoinette played with her children and received friends is the final stage of a project marking the 400th anniversary of Versailles that has also seen the restoration her two getaways from the main palace: a hamlet of rustic cottages and the Petit Trianon palace.



Austrian-born Marie Antoinette was 14 when she arrived in France to marry the future Louis XVI. She began the decoration and furnishing of the private rooms shortly after she became queen in 1774 and continued until 1788. Her demands for alterations to the rooms and impatience at getting the work done is said to have provoked the ire of the king’s chief architect, Ange-Jacques Gabriel.

Historians and researchers have spent the best part of a decade consulting records and accounts of that time trying to establish how they might have looked. The result is an inner sanctum of gilt and silks – testament to the queen’s lavish and extravagant taste – where she withdrew from court life with her closest ladies-in-waiting to spend time with her children and a select circle of friends.

“It took the perseverance of the curators at the Château de Versailles over many years to restore this perfect image to us and weave together the links between the queen’s public and private lives,” said Catherine Pégard, the president of Versailles.

“These rooms, to which only a few friends and her close entourage were admitted, so small they can only be viewed by groups of 10 people at most, exude lightness. Once again, the curators through their careful attention to the most minor details, manage to give these rooms their sense. They offer visitors a new insight into the life of Marie Antoinette, a journey that raises a thousand questions about etiquette and intimacy.”



Laurent Salomé, the director of the palace, said the reconstruction was complicated by a lack of historical records but said the queen’s private apartment was a “fascinating space for those interested in the last glory of the [French] monarchy”.

“This world of refinement had largely disappeared and left very little trace in the archives, which complicated the job,” she said.

The painstaking work involved cross-checking plans, suppliers’ memorandums, various written orders and miscellaneous papers to establish a reliable idea of the appearance of the rooms. Archivists also searched for evidence of cloths and materials chosen by the queen for curtains and upholstery, including traces of fabrics found under modern renovations of chairs and sofas.

Two of the rooms, including the queen’s boudoir, are believed to have been decorated with toile de Jouy wall coverings featuring pineapples, a fruit brought to Europe by Christopher Columbus in 1493, whose rarity had made it a symbol of wealth and power.

Hélène Delalex, the curator in charge of Marie Antoinette’s apartments at Versailles, said the rooms were Marie Antoinette’s “great passion”.



“She demonstrated extraordinary taste, confidence and audacity. Just a few months after her arrival at Versailles without even asking the king, she ordered Gabriel to carry out major works, which he refused and complained to the sovereign. The tone was set. But this passion continued unabated and only the Revolution was able to put an end to it.”

At dawn on 6 October 1789, after an angry crowd forced their way into Versailles, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette left the royal palace with their children never to return. The couple attempted to flee France in 1791, but were caught, imprisoned and accused of plotting with foreign powers to confound the Revolution. The king was sent to the guillotine in January 1793 followed by Marie Antoinette nine months later.

The reopening of the private rooms, which were closed to the public for five years, is a highlight of Versailles’ 400th anniversary programme. The palace, which attracts almost 7 million visitors a year, dates to 1623 when King Louis XIII ordered a small hunting lodge on an 1,976 acre estate be enlarged. The buildings were further enlarged by Louis XIV.

“The hoped-for result is that the visitor will have the precious illusion of entering a place the queen has just left,” Salomé added.

Kim Willsher
Photograph: Sebastien GILES/Palace of Versailles / S. Giles
https://www.theguardian.com/international

Encore !

Il faut savoir que les pièces concernées par cette restauration se situent au deuxième étage. Parole d'experte :

"Cela a été d'abord un grand travail dans les archives, dans les papiers, dans les rapports des inspections, des comptes du bâtiment du roi. La recherche sur les plans s'est accompagnée ensuite d'une recherche sur l'ameublement. D'abord, l'ameublement mural, et ensuite des recherches sur le mobilier. On sait qu'il y avait ici un lit à la turc, un nombre de sièges défini. D'ailleurs, quand on lit les inventaires et que l'on voit les toutes petites pièces, on est toujours étonné, parce que c'était, comme toujours à Versailles, plein comme un œuf !"

(Hélène Delalex)

Selon Hélène Delalex, conservatrice en charge du projet, les appartements de Marie-Antoinette à Versailles étaient son « grand amour ».

« Elle a fait preuve d’un goût, d’une confiance et d’une audace extraordinaires. Seulement quelques mois après son arrivée à Versailles, et sans même demander l’avis du roi, elle ordonne à Gabriel de faire de grands travaux, ce qu’il refuse et s’en plaint auprès de la souveraine. Le ton est donné. Mais cette passion s’est poursuivie sans relâche et seule la Révolution a pu y mettre un terme », a-t-elle ajouté.

Au coeur de l'histoire est entré dans le Saint des saints.
https://www.europe1.fr/medias-tele/reouverture-des-ppartements-prives-de-marie-antoinette-a-versailles-les-cabinets-interieurs-cest-le-saint-des-saints-de-lintimite-de-la-reine-4192880

Un gros bémol dans ce concert de louanges

• "À l'occasion des 400 ans du château de Versailles, l'établissement a ouvert au public, le 27 juin dernier, les appartements privés de Marie-Antoinette. Mais la visite semble réhabiliter l’Ancien Régime en transformant Marie-Antoinette, icône antirépublicaine, en une femme au-dessus de tout soupçon. Un révisionnisme idéologique dont on se passerait volontiers, déplore notre chroniqueur Jack Dion."

https://www.marianne.net/agora/les-signatures-de-marianne/jack-dion-la-rehabilitation-de-marie-antoinette-ou-le-retour-du-revisionnisme

Pathétiques ces combats d'arrière-garde !

Laissons les aigris dans leur morosité. La visite est somptueuse et il ne faut pas la manquer.

L'on peut ajouter la table de chevet qui vient de reprendre sa place au sein de la chambre du rez-de-chaussée.


https://maria-antonia.forumactif.com/t465p125-la-chambre-privee-de-la-reine#404373

Merci pour le renvoi. Ce forum est très mal rangé.

Saluons la maîtrise de leur travail :

• https://www.facebook.com/maison.autin
  

• Maison Autin
  7 février à 19:57  ·
  Notre Versailles à nous !!!
  Ce document Braqueniè est une pure merveille !!!
  Bergère "Ananas (petits appartements de la Reine)" accompagnée de 3 paires de double-rideaux en "Beauregard (Rose indien / clémentine - Canovas)" ... 2 fauteuils suivent bientôt 🥰
  Artisanalement vôtre, Edith et Hervé AUTIN
  

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Reportage CBS Mornings

Restoration allows for new look at the life of Marie Antoinette

• After years of restoration work, visitors to the home of Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France, can get a new look into the private life of the controversial figure. Michelle Miller reports.
  
  "CBS Saturday Morning" co-hosts Michelle Miller and Dana Jacobson deliver two hours of original reporting and breaking news, as well as profiles of leading figures in culture and the arts.
  

Lire aussi les commentaires
surtout le premier :

• @toddlarkin5620
  
  Oh dear, so many errors in this report.  MA became a fashion queen because she could not have children for 7+ years?  Overstated. Her patronage was extensive and varied, but her greatest passion was for music, and at the king's behest she took up the role of musical director at court and thereby transformed the programming at Versailles.
  

Je trouve aussi que c'est trop réducteur. Marie-Antoinette ne s'est pas tournée vers l'ameublement parce que son mari ne lui faisait pas d'enfants. Elle aimait les arts, décoration, mode, musique et était douée pour ça.