Monday 25 January 2016

Le deuil en peinture, un Rubens en prime

Le roi est mort Versailles Rubens Marie de Médicis
A line of paintings at the 'the king is dead' exhibition, showing how mourning evolved... The portrait in the foreground is Anne of Austria, queen consort of Louis XIII and Louis XIV's mother (by Henri and Charles Beaubrun, 1650). Black and white... The second one is Louis XIII (by Frans Pourbus the younger, 1611), wearing the "purple crimson" great mourning dress, which only the king could sport. The third one (see also below), is a gorgeous portrait of Marie de' Medici, queen of France by Peter Paul Rubens in black. Finally, the tiny painting at the end (and below) is best-known as Mary Stuart, or Queen of Scots though at the time, she was mourning her husband, king Francis II of France, in white...

Une enfilade de peintures à l'expo "le roi est mort", montrant les habits de deuil... Au premier plan, Anne d'Autriche, épouse de Louis XIII et mère de Louis XIV, en noir et blanc, par Henri et Charles Beaubrun. Au second plan, Louis XIII (par Frans Pourbus le jeune, 1611), portant l'habit de grand deuil, violet cramoisi, réservé au roi. Ensuite, un superbe portrait de Marie de Médicis par Pierre Paul Rubens, toute de noir vêtue. Pour terminer, tout au bout, Marie Stuart, reine d'Ecosse, portant le deuil blanc de son époux François II de France.
Le roi est mort Versailles Rubens Marie de Médicis
Le roi est mort Versailles Mary Stuart

14 comments:

Unknown said...

Fascinating stuff Ciel, your interest in history really shines through. Beautiful paintings, I love the Marie de Medici by Rubens its stunning...

William Kendall said...

Strange to think of white in relation to mourning.

Lois said...

How interesting Ciel. When I see clothing like this, I always think about how time consuming it must have been to get dressed and undressed back then, not to mention having to go the bathroom! The paintings are beautiful.

RedPat said...

The setting for these is magnificent, Ciel!

Cezar and Léia said...

So glad that you could take pictures in this exhibition! Thanks for sharing these lovely paintings!
Have a nice week ma belle!

Léia

Revrunner said...

I do wonder about those colors reserved for royalty.

GreensboroDailyPhoto said...


Between you and William in Ottawa Daily Photo, I'm really getting an art history lesson. These paintings have an ethereal beauty to them.

Happy Monday!

Janis
GDP

PerthDailyPhoto said...

They are so beautifully painted Ciel, I'm always surprised at how different people's features were depicted in those days. Did they really look like that or is that how the artist saw them!

Sharon said...

That is an interesting series of paintings. I like the idea behind putting these all together.

Tanya Breese said...

i love the first photo, the way you shot it!

Lowell said...

Those are some majestic paintings! I could spend a lot of time searching out all the details in each one.

VP said...

Not really my favorite painter...

Daryl said...

love this post .. its such fun to get to see places like this

EG CameraGirl said...

Very interesting to see how Royalty dressed when in mourning!