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MARIE ANTOINETTE + COUNT FERSEN requested by anonymous

The most fashionable, scrutinised and controversial queen in history, Marie Antoinette’s name summons both visions of excess and objects and interiors of great beauty. The Austrian archduchess turned Queen of France had an enormous impact on European taste and fashion in her own time, creating a distinctive style that now has universal appeal and application… Marie Antoinette’s story has been re-told and re-purposed by each successive generation to suit its own ends. The rare combination of glamour, spectacle and tragedy she presents remains as intoxicating today as it was in the 18th century.

Sarah Grant, V&A Curator of Marie Antoinette Style, 2025

fashionsfromhistory

Portrait of Marie Antoinette in Court Dress by François Hubert Drouais

1773

Marie-Antoinette is shown here at the age of 17. She was already married to the future king Louis XVI, and a year later would be queen. She wears formal court dress: a silk gown with embroidered stomacher, needle lace and silver trimmings, and a jewelled necklace. A leader of fashion, Marie-Antoinette was at first celebrated for her taste but came to be criticised for her extravagance. She died at the guillotine in 1793. This painting appears to be one of several versions derived from an earlier portrait of Marie-Antoinette as Hebe, goddess of youth, executed by the same painter Drouais for Louis XV of France in 1772 and currently in the Musée Condé, Chantilly.

Currently on view at the Victoria & Albert South Kensington exhibit Marie Antoinette Style (Accession Number: 529-1882)

didanagy

MARIE ANTOINETTE (2006)

dir. sofia coppola

filmgifs

MARIE ANTOINETTE — (2006) dir. Sofia Coppola

joanna-lannister

MARIE ANTOINETTE (2006) dir. Sofia Coppola

joanna-lannister

MARIE ANTOINETTE (2006) dir. Sofia Coppola

fashionsfromhistory

Armchair

Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené & Other Artisans

1788

This chair and its pair (W.7-1956) were almost certainly part of a suite made in 1788 for Queen Marie-Antoinette's cabinet de toilette at the Palace of Saint-Cloud -- the rest of the suite comprising two further armchairs (one at Versailles, the other sold at Sotheby's New York, 22 October 2005, lot78), a sultane (daybed without a back), a bergere armchair and a fire screen (all in the Metropolitan Museum; inv. no. 41.205.1-3a,b), and a footstool (untraced). The frames were made by the joiner (menuisier) Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené (1748–1803), carved by an unidentified carver, and painted and gilded by the painter-gilder (peintre-doreur) Louis-François Chatard (c. 1749–1819), who eventually delivered the suite to Saint Cloud. The suite is recorded in an inventory of Saint Cloud taken in 1789. At the top of this chair is carved the monogram MA for Marie-Antoinette, queen to Louis XVI of France. It was probably part of a suite delivered in 1788 to the Château de Saint-Cloud, Sene supplied similar suites of chairs to Versailles and the Tuileries. The armchair bears all the hallmarks of neoclassical style, popular in France after 1775, with its straight, tapering legs and decorative elements which include classical columns with Ionic capitals and laurel and acanthus leaf motifs.

Currently on view at the Victoria & Albert South Kensington exhibit Marie Antoinette Style (Accession Number: W.6&2-1956)

See more about the conservation of these chairs here: The Conservation of Marie Antoinette's Chair