Saturday, June 22, 2013

Marie-Antoinette in America

From the Getty Center in Los Angeles:
This richly illustrated lecture by art historian Ronald Freyberger features 54 sumptuous works that originally adorned Marie-Antoinette's royal residences before the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. Japanese lacquer, exotic wood veneers, jewel-like gilt bronze, superbly carved and gilded wood, as well as porcelain from the royal porcelain factory at Sèvres, were used in crafting these magnificent and historically significant examples of furniture, decorations, and useful objects by Jean-Henri Risener, Georges Jacob, and other renowned names in the history of the decorative arts.

Exacting standards of aesthetic and technical virtuosity, which had never before been attained, inform these refined works of art, for which the original commissions can be traced to Louis XVI's extravagant, tragic, and ill-fated queen.

Post-1789 owners of furniture made for Marie Antoinette, including George Watson Taylor in England, the 10th Duke of Hamilton in Scotland, and Mr. and Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt on New York's Fifth Avenue, are also discussed in the lecture.

Ronald Freyberger has published and lectured widely on 18th-century French decorative arts. His research helped establish Madame de Pompadour's original ownership of the so-called Dudley vases, now part of the J. Paul Getty Museum's collection. (Read entire post.)
The Getty Center
Date: Sunday, July 14, 2013
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Harold M. Williams Auditorium
Admission: Free; reservations recommended. Call (310) 440-7300.
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