The Belvédère - Petit Trianon, Versailles

Between 1788 and 1781, to the designs of her personal architect, Richard Mique, a music salon was built for Marie Antoinette on a small artificial hill at Trianon, part of the new "English" garden on the estate. Called the Belvédère du Petit Trianon, or the Pavillon du rocher - after the adjacent artificial rock formation, waterfall, and grotto - it is a small octagonal stone "folly" in the neoclassical style. The four overdoors - incorporating attributes of gardening and hunting - and the carvings above the four windows - representing the Seasons - as well as the eight sphinxes flanking the pavilion are the work of the sculptor Joseph Deschamps, assisted by the young Pierre Cartellier. The interior is richly decorated with arabesques painted in oil on stucco by Sébastien François Leriche, while the ceiling painting was created by Jean-Jacques Lagrenée le Jeune, and the floor is a beautiful mosaic of white, red, green, and bleu turquin marble. In fine weather, the pavilion was furnished with eight armchairs - fauteuils en bergère - and eight chairs - chaises à dossier - the work of François II Foliot, and based on the models of architect Jacques Gondouin. (Delivered in 1781, the costly chairs were sold off during the Revolution; just one has been returned to Versailles.) After a year of meticulous restoration, the renewed and preserved Belvédère was inaugurated in June of 2012.

An anonymous watercolor made soon after the construction of the Belvédère.

One of the original chairs. The original upholstery was of painted blue and white silk, luxuriously trimmed.

Apparently, the embroidered fabric on this chair - not the one at Versailles - was modeled after the design of the original.

***

Most of the images in this post were adapted from those on the Andrewhopkinsart blogspot, whose own post on the subject tells the story of the Belvédère expertly!

Le Petit Théâtre de la Reine, and a brief miscarriage of color

The Petit Théâtre de la Reine, which is situated adjacent to the Jardin Français of the Petit Trianon, was designed by Marie Antoinette's achitect, Richard Mique, and constructed in 1780.  The building is quite austere on the exterior, but the interior - which only seats, at maximum, one hundred - was lavishly decorated in the height of the current, delicately neo-classical style.  The décor, giving the appearance of being constructed of marble and gilt bronze, is actually all made of wood and papier maché.  Remarkably, this beautiful and fragile structure has survived intact; most remarkably, so has its extensive stage machinery.

***

For a time, during the reign of Louis-Philippe (1830-1848), the blue wall hangings and drapery were changed from the original greenish-blue to a vivid red.  An unfortunate choice which was later, thankfully, undone.

Vue du petit théâtre de Marie-Antoinette au Petit Trianon sous Louis-Philippe, by Antoinette Asselineau, 1838.

Le cabinet de la garde-robe of Louis XVI at Versailles

The last masterpiece of interior design created at Versailles before the Revolution, this tiny wardrobe, reached by way of the alcove in the king's private bedroom, is one of the rare projects completed for Louis XVI.

Created under the direction of the Queen's architect, Richard Mique, in 1788, the boiseries are the work of the celebrated Rousseau brothers.  The bronzes on the fireplace - which is original to the room - are by Gouthière.

Discretely concealed within the paneling is a cabinet de chaise.

Commode en bas d'armoire by Adam Weisweiler, part of the original décor.

A detail of the carved and gilded paneling.

Marie Antoinette's cabinet doré at Versailles

The fully restored/refurbished cabinet doré.  (The other images show the work in progress.)

At Versailles, behind the state rooms of the queen of France, lie several very small private rooms ranged around two dark interior courtyards.  The most important room of the petit appartement de la reine is the grand cabinet intérieur.  In 1783 Marie Antoinette ordered a complete redecoration of this small salon.  The décor was the design of the queen's architect Richard Mique, and the new carved and gilded boiseries, in a beautifully severe neoclassical style - the work of the Rousseau brothers - caused the room to be renamed the cabinet doré.

Toward the end of the Revolution, most of the furniture at Versailles was sold off, starting in August of 1793.  In the modern refurnishing of the palace, it is fairly rare that a room will accommodate its original furnishings; the museum has often been unable to acquire the original furniture and, in many cases, the rooms that once housed much of the fine pieces they have acquired no longer exist.  (Also, before the Revolution, furniture was often replaced and/or moved to another residence, which makes it hard to know to what state a room should be restored.)   In the cabinet doré, the paneling, mantlepiece, and chandelier are all original to the room.  Of the furniture - by the likes of Riesener and Jacob and Weisweiler - most was owned by the queen, but made for other settings.

At great cost, this salon has recently been very much restored/refurbished;
the desk, alone, was purchased by the state in 2011 for 6.75 million euros.

(In these last two images, the embellishments to the the divan and screen
have not been added, and the drapery above the alcove is not in place.)

A fauteuil from the suite of seat furniture by
Georges Jacob, originally in the Tuileries.

The queen's desk, made in 1783 by Riesener for the salon of the maison de la Reine of the Hameau at Trianon.