Tuesday 20 August 2013

"Les fleurs du roi" : les peintures

At last! 'The King's flowers' exhibition inside the Grand Trianon! Absolutely gorgeous paintings, most notably Madame de Pompadour (chief mistress of Louis XV), top left of the first picture by Carle Van Loo. The last photo below is a portrait of the Countess of Ségur, whom most French children know pretty well, by one of my favourite painters, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (I had shown you another of her paintings here). Grand Trianon, built in 1687 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, was dedicated to being a relaxing island escape from the palace surrounded by fragrant flowers, hence this exhibition for Le Nôtre year. Sometimes, Grand Trianon would be accessed by boat via the Grand Canal. The flowers in the gardens were planted into the soil in their pots in order to be changed as soon as they wilted...

Enfin ! L'expo "les fleurs du roi" au Grand Trianon ! De superbes peintures, plus particulièrement la marquise de Pompadour, maîtresse de Louis XV par Carle Van Loo (en haut à gauche sur la première photo). La dernière photo ci-dessous  est un délicieux portrait de la Comtesse de Ségur par l'un de mes peintres préférés, Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun (dont je vous montrais une autre œuvre ici). Le Grand Trianon, construit en 1687 par Jules Hardouin-Mansart, était comme une île dédiée au repos, entourée de fleurs odorantes, à laquelle on accédait parfois après un court voyage en barque sur le Grand Canal, d'où cette exposition pour l'année Le Nôtre. Les fleurs des jardins étaient mises en terre en pots, de manière à éviter les fleurs fanées...

19 comments:

Unknown said...

Awesome paintings and your photos are superb, Ciel, the next best thing to being there in person! Thanks for sharing! Beautiful group of ladies!! Hope you have a great week!

LONDONLULU said...

Wow, absolutely luminous, both the paintings and your images! How I would love to have seen these in person. I enjoyed learning about the Countess of Segur, fascinating woman, and seeing past scenes. The tour is magnificent:)

Halcyon said...

Beautiful works of art in a beautiful setting. :)

Jack said...

These are terrific, Ciel. I love paintings and would have enjoyed seeing these myself. You might remember that last winter I showed a painting by Vigee-Lebrun, too.

Randy said...

So regal looking.

BaysideLife said...

Such beautiful artwork. Thanks for all the information. This is the next best thing to being there. :)

Small City Scenes said...

Oh how glorious!!! Such beauty surrounds you. MB

Cezar and Léia said...

wow this is glorious!Impressive details, so rich and beautiful!
Léia

Thérèse said...

Ah les livres de la comtesse de Segur!
Paul,Marguerite...

Anonymous said...

Fantastic, and the lighting is just perfection!

Wayne said...

The photos are beautiful. I marvel at the details.

Lowell said...

This is all quite incredible. The royal classes sure knew how to live - well, sorta. Reading about them, their lives sound kinda boring.

Lovely photos, Ciel!

Tanya Breese said...

some of my ancestors were filles du roi's...is there an exhibit for them? ;)

tattina said...

The post is very nice.
Thank you for it.

lilac and old roses said...

I saw these last week, they were beautiful. I love Versailles and your posts are making feel like I am still there. Thank you, Jane x

VP said...

Here I am: another fan of Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun!

Bergson said...

des tableaux qui ont un certain lustre

Unknown said...

Great compositions with beautiful paintings!

Louisette retriever said...

Beautifull, interesting post