The Queen's Jewel

'The Queen's Jewel' is a semi-historical fantasy comic about magical girls during the years leading up to the French Revolution. See the About page for more info.

[historical-nonfiction]

Meet Marie-Jean “Rose” Bertin, dressmaker to Marie-Antoinette. She pioneered haute couture in Paris, setting up her shop in 1777 and quickly becoming the dressmaker of choice for nobility and royalty. Once the queen met her, she became so taken with Bertin’s talents that a workshop was built just for Bertin in Versailles. There, Rose held sway as the “Minister of Fashion” creating ever more extravagant outfits for the queen. Bertin also created dolls covered in specially made miniature fashions. These were bought by collectors, or sent as gifts to foreign courts. Her dolls allowed women across Europe to keep up with the latest in French fashions. Using the dolls, seamstresses could re-create the latest fashions for their local patrons. Marie-Antoinette, with some help from Rose Bertin, helped keep France the fashion capital of Europe for long after they had both left the scene.

[joli-boudoir]

Le Hameau de la Reine (The Queen’s Hamlet - my photos)

[nanshe-of-nina]

WOMEN’S HISTORY † YOLANDE-GABRIELLE DE POLASTRON (8 September 1749 – 9 December 1793)

Yolande-Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac was the daughter of Jean-François Gabriel, comte de Polastron, and Jeanne-Charlotte Hérault de Vaucresson. Though members of the upper aristocracy, her parents were not especially wealthy. Her mother died when she was a baby and she was, thus, raised by one of her aunts in the south of France. At the age of 17, she married Jules-François Armand, comte de Polignac, who was also something of an impoverished patrician. Gabrielle was considered very beautiful with dark hair, very pale skin, and violet eyes. In 1775, her sister-in-law invited her the French court at Versailles. She was formerly presented to the Queen, Marie-Antoinette, who asked that she take up permanent residence at court. Gabrielle demured on the grounds that she didn’t have the money to live at court, so Marie-Antoinette stepped in to help the entire Polignac family. Marie-Antoinette and Gabrielle became such close friends that rumors spread that they were lesbian lovers, though there is little reason to believe this tale. Despite accusations that Gabrielle was incredibly extravagant, examining her account books shows that she actually encured lesser expenses than other Royal favourites like Madame de Pompadour or the Marquise de Montespan. In 1782, Gabrielle became the governess of the royal children after the previous governess, Victoire de Rohan, had to resign due to her husband’s outstanding debts. Gabrielle was also a close friend of Charles-Philippe, comte d'Artois, the younger brother of Louis XVI, who shared her ultra-royalist politics. After the Fall of the Bastille in 1789, Gabrielle, her family, and the comte d'Artois left France on the orders of the king and thus, missed the French Revolution. She died in Austria in 1793 of unknown causes, less than six months after Marie-Antoinette had been beheaded.

[virgoprivilege]

hey just a wee thing if you’re an aspiring creator of historical fiction like moi

if you’ve ever sat down to write your story and thought ‘ok but what is the historical backdrop for these characters on this particular month, or this day, in this country, in this city’

the british newspaper archive [link] has literally millions of archived newspaper pages going all the way back to the 1700s

so if you’re like me and thinking ‘ok but what was going on in edinburgh in may 1914??’ this archive has got you covered, pal

[kelverseart]

Doodle of Ely after her ‘first battle’ at the official handing-over of Marie Antoinette from Austria to France.

I really just wanted to draw Ely and didn’t plan for it to turn into anything but accidental concept art is never a bad thing.

I started out intending for her dress to be a really fancy 1770′s dress but! that obviously didn’t happen and also she’s been very obviously rolling around in mud and blood and god knows what else so I just slapped some colors on it after tearing it up because after the battle it’s just scraps of ruined fabric.

[niczka]

Mini mood board for Marie Antoinette/Louis XVI!

(I tried to stay away from the overly-pastel thing that a lot of 18th-century mood boards go for)

[peremadeleine]

Hahaha I'm pretty sure Louis being fat was a plus then?? I mean back then being fat equated to being good looking (I mean look at the Victorians? Being ripped meant you were poor then so..) Marie Antoinette would've loved those rolls ;)

Hi, I’m sorry if you sent this ask a long time ago; for some reason my blog doesn’t alert me when I have a new ask so I have no idea how long the messages sit in here. =\

Anyway, I’m no expert on beauty standards during the Rococo period in France. Generally, the prosperity of a society gives you some insight into its beauty standards–at least historically speaking: during times of famine or scarcity, people who appear well-fed and healthy are considered the most desirable/beautiful, and vice-versa (this is true even in our own time; food is plentiful to the point of unhealthy, fattening food being so plentiful and cheap that it’s actually creating widespread health problems). Overall, though, I’m willing to guess that being a bit plump was one thing, but being considered actually fat, not so much?

But a quick google search tells me that in Rococo art, “ladies became graceful and petite, the ideal was a very slim waist line, the ‘wasp waist’.” [x] Also consider that George IV of England, who was only eight years younger than Louis, was very fashion-conscious and got so heavy that he eventually wore a corset because his weight made him “the target of ridicule”! [x] (This was, of course, three decades after Louis’ execution–but maybe it gives us some idea of the standards of the day?)

There was more to Louis’ appearance than his weight, of course. He was also almost six-foot-two, while the average height of a man in his time was about five-five. He was also very physically strong, able to lift a grown man standing on the end of a shovel (no, really). He was also quite physically active in general, and apparently didn’t begin putting on weight until middle-age; and while the source isn’t cited, that last article and others purport that Louis’ contemporaries considered him an attractive man!

And naturally, Marie Antoinette might have loved him for his mind and personality as much as for his face and body; after all, the better you like a person, the more attractive you find them. Louis was–contrary to what people often claim–very intelligent and well-educated.

tl;dr Louis XVI wasn’t the fat, lazy dunderhead cuckolded by a pretty and disinterested wife as is commonly portrayed, and given the rapid succession of children they had following the birth of Marie-Therese-Charlotte, I’d say Antoinette was more than a little into him…but I’m not sure if it’s because being heavier was seen as more attractive.

[aura-luxe]

Hoppin on the bandwagon~

[aura-luxe]

Late night sketchbook doodles pt. 2 an Elysée

[tiny-librarian]

On this day in history, May 6th, in 1682, Louis XIV officially moved the French Court from Paris and into the Chateau de Versailles. It would remain the seat of power for the French monarchy for over 100 years, until the outbreak of the French Revolution when Louis XVI and his family were forced to return to Paris by the revolutionaries.

[vivelareine]

The Queen occasionally remained a whole month at Petit Trianon, and had established there all the ways of life in a chateau. She entered the sitting-room without driving the ladies from their pianoforte or embroidery. The gentlemen continued their billiards or backgammon without suffering her presence to interrupt them. There was but little room in the small Chateau of Trianon. Madame Elisabeth accompanied the Queen there, but the ladies of honour and ladies of the palace had no establishment at Trianon. When invited by the Queen, they came from Versailles to dinner. The King and Princes came regularly to sup. A white gown, a gauze kerchief, and a straw hat were the uniform dress of the Princesses.

–the memoirs of Madame Campan

[aura-luxe]

doodlin’~

[lacedheartt-deactivated20210203]

Archduchesses of Austria

The 8 surviving daughters of Maria Theresa of Austria, most portraits believed to have been done by Martin van Mytens.

Left to Right Top: Maria ‘Mariana’ Anna (1738-1789), Maria ‘Mimi’ Christina (1742-1798), Maria Elisabeth (1743-1808), Maria Amalia (1746-1804), Maria Joanna (1750-1762), Maria Josepha (1751-1767), Maria Carolina (1752-1814), Maria Antonia aka Marie Antoinette (1754-1793) 

(via)

[aura-luxe]

Honestly this idea seemed a lot cooler before I drew it.

[my18thcenturysource]

Pink Hair Powder Tutorial

Remember the question about the pink hair in Marie Antoinette?

Well, now the answer to that question gets even bigger and better for your pleasure: saying that you could have pink hair in the 18th century by using hair powder is pretty enough, but have the actual recipe and share it with all of you to try it, well, it’s better, don’t you think?

The recipe is from The Toilet of Flora (1779) and this is the revisited version by Isis (from Madame Isis Toilette):

Ingredients:

375 g corn starch 47 g Orris root 60 ml Dolomit

Directions:

Look for all the ingredients to be already pulverized, so you simply have to mix them in a bowl. BOOM. You have white hair powder now (that was fast, right?). Add iron oxide until you have the desired tone of pink.

Done. You have just made 18th century pink hair powder. Now try it on your hair or wigs and let us all know!

The original post from Madame Isis Toilette is glorious, and explains each original ingredient and what we call it now or what can we use nowadays, also she makes grey and white hair powder. Take a look and (you surely will) bookmark her blog about all beauty in 18th century.

[ephemeral-elegance]

Its FRIDAY FASHION FACT time! Today’s topic is long overdue: mid-18th century French court mantuas and panniers. You know what I’m talking about- those crazy-wide gowns that sort of look like wearing a fancy silk box. Whether you consider the style to be gorgeous or absurd (or both!) I’m sure you will agree on how fascinating it is that such an impractical fashion became the apex of style. So how did it happen?

The origins of the style can be traced back to the 17th Century. At this time, gowns known as mantuas were created as an alternative to the heavy bodices and petticoats (not to mention several layers of underpinnings) worn in court at the time. Mantuas were relatively light, with the top layer of the skirt pulled back at the hips. Unsurprisingly, the more comfortable style took off. Women quickly realized that the swags of the skirt at their hips caused their conically-corseted waists to appear smaller. Naturally, they began to widen the hips of the mantuas to emphasize their small waists. This was done with panniers, which were essentially stretched-out hoop skirts, though they only shaped the top of skirts, and did not extend to the floor.

The women of Versailles were the ones to take the style to new heights, or rather, new widths. As the French court was the epitome of opulence, women strove to widest panniers possible to show that they could afford vast yardage of incredible expensive silks, often painstakingly embroidered with elaborate designs. The peak of the mantua was in the 1740s and 50s, when it achieved the infamous boxy shape. By this time, the draped overskirt had evolved into crisp pleats in the back, perfectly paired with a smooth bodice cut close to the body in the robe a l'Anglaise style. However, sometimes the wide panniers would be paired with the robe a la Française style, in which pleats extended loosely from the shoulders.

The wide style seems absurd to us today, and it was often seen as equally ridiculous in its own time. There were plenty who questioned any mocked the over the top look. By the latter half of the 18th Century, the softer forms of the Rococo style prevailed, and the boxy mantua began to soften. By the 1770s, rounded skirts spelled the end of the dramatic manuta and panniers. It is worth noting that while many people associate Marie Antoinette with this crazy style, the look had already fallen from its most dramatic form by the time she ascended to the throne. Of course, she wore styles that were incredibly dramatic in other ways, however, that is a topic for another day.

Have a question about fashion history that you want answered in the next FRIDAY FASHION FACT? Just click the ASK button at the top of the page!

[vivelareine]

Happy Birthday to Marie Antoinette, who was born on November 2nd, 1755.