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2/7/2012

The Ladies of Trianon

Chateau de Versailles, Versailles

From 3 July to 14 October 2012, the palace of Versailles presents the exhibition Ladies of the Trianon at the Grand Trianon.

The show features a group of portraits recalling famous and not-so-famous women who lived at the Trianon.

In addition to rulers from Queen Maria-Theresa of Austria to Empress Eugénie of France, portraits of women in the royal or imperial family – mothers, sisters, daughters and granddaughters – are on display in the gallery. Beside them, you can see paintings of women whose lives were interwoven with power – princesses and royal favourites – and of lesser-known figures: ladies of the royal court and women in the service of queens and empresses.

A procession of three centuries of women in French history streams past the eyes of visitors, who can observe changing tastes in fashion and portraiture in famous works by Gobert, Rigaud, Nattier, Gérard, Gros and Winterhalter.

Jérémie Benoît, Head Curator at the palace of Versailles, is the show's commissioner.

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From 3 July to 14 October 2012, the palace of Versailles presents the exhibition Ladies of the Trianon at the Grand Trianon.

Both Trianon palaces – the spring and summer residences of the Kings of France –were built for their lovers but very soon considered places for strolling and relaxing away from the protocol of the court of Versailles. The prettiest women were invited there for performances and country parties in the privacy of the royal family.

Queens Marie-Theresa of Austria, Louis XIV's wife, and Marie Leszczinska, Louis XV's wife, came to Trianon on a regular basis, but the royal mistresses – Madame de Montespan, Madame de Pompadour and Madame Du Barry – and Louis XIV's daughters, famous for their pranks, are the ones who left the most memories here.

Late in Louis XIV's reign the Duchess of Burgundy, Louis XV's mother, moved into the Grand Trianon, where she staged a carnival in 1702. She foreshadowed Marie-Antoinette, whose memory will forever be associated with the Petit Trianon, where the Queen led a simple life surrounded by her children and friends, Mesdames de Lamballe and de Polignac.

In 1805, after the Revolution, Napoleon had both palaces refurnished for his mother, his wife Josephine and his sister Pauline Borghèse. Later he had them turned into his "spring residence" for the use of his second wife, Marie-Louise of Hapsburg, whom he honoured with lavish festivities from 1810 on.

The Trianon fell into disuse during the Restoration, when receptions seldom took place there, but it had one last chance to shine under the reign of King Louis-Philippe, who housed his large family in the palaces. His wife, Queen Marie-Amélie, and her sister, Madame Adélaïde, lived in the left wing of the Grand Trianon. His daughters, Princesses Clémentine and Marie, who got married there in 1837, and Louise, Queen of the Belgians, lived in the right wing. The heiress to the throne, Helene of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Duchess of Orléans, lived in the Petit Trianon.

The last female ruler to visit the site, Empress Eugénie, had the Petit Trianon turned into a museum devoted to the memory of Marie-Antoinette. Under the Fifth Republic, the Grand Trianon became a guesthouse for the great, including Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands.

Opening July 3rd

Chateau de Versailles
Place d'Armes - Versailles
9 - 18,30, closed monday

stampa

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