*rococo revisited
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À L'ANCIEN RÈGIME IS INSPIRED BY THE ART OF ROCOCO
Seven year old Louis in 1792, portrait by Alexander Kucharsky Louis XVII (Versailles 27 March 1785 – Paris 8 June 1795), from birth to 1789 known as Louis-Charles,  the son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette.  He had been imprisoned from August 1792 until his death from illness in 1795 at the age of 10, and he had never been officially crowned as king, nor had he ruled.  the prisoner is said  to have been put in a dark room which was barricaded like the cage of a wild animal. The story runs that no one entered the dauphin’s room for six months and that food was passed through the bars to the child, who survived in spite of the accumulated filth of his surroundings. In his last months, the child maintained an obstinate silence, explained as a determination taken on the day he was made to do a  deposition against his mother.  Louis Charles died on 8 June 1795 at  about ten years of age. He was buried on the 10th in the cemetery of Ste. Marguerite, but no stone was erected to mark the spot. Immediately on the announcement of the dauphin’s death a rumour arose that he had escaped. In 2000 a DNA testing of the heart believed to have belonged to the child who died in captivity proved that the heart was that of Louis-Charles. French Legitimists organized its burial in the Basilica on 8 June 2004, next to the remains of his parents.
“They are here, but they are not here. There are some identifying fragments, physical evidence of their culture and social refinement. But what kind of connection can you make with a people who have been gone for two thousand years? I am looking for the Romans in England.”—Clive Irving explores the baths of old Blighty. Photo (Bath, England): Andrew Moore
The key to Marie-Antoinette’s private cabinet 
“Manon Lescaut” or “1755 Doll”, one of the The Gratitude Train fashion dolls  maker: A. Reichert  (French) Designer: Blondell Date: 1949 This design by the furriers Blondell is credited as being a “Manon Lescaut” style. “Manon Lescaut”, published by Antoine Françoise Prévost in 1731 typifies the lyrical emotion of rococo literature and inspired several stage productions including a ballets and operas by Massenet and Puccini. In 1947, in response to the suffering of post-World War II France, an American campaign organized a large-scale relief package. The following year France, moved by this generosity, organized a gift to say thanks for the “American Friendship Train” ; so the French created the “Gratitude” or “Merci Train”, a set of 49 boxcars filled with gifts of thanks. Each of the 48 states was to receive a boxcar with the 49th shared between Washington D.C., and the Territory of Hawaii, which had contributed sugar on the Friendship Train. A wide array of items was included in these cars, from handmade children’s toys to priceless works of art.  The Chambre Syndicale de la Couture de Parisienne, who, to raise money for the French people, had two years prior organized the Theatre de la Mode, a group of fashion dolls dressed in clothing from the 1947 couture collections, chose to create a new set of fashion dolls, this time representing the evolution of French fashion rather than the current season. Once again, the Syndicat tapped the most talented and well-known fashion designers, hairstylists, and accessory designers of the time to create these miniature masterpieces.  The unique design of the fashion doll, originally created for Theatre de la Mode and used again for the Gratitude Train was conceived by Eileen Bonabel, the plaster head by the artist Rebull.  Each designer chose a year between 1715 and 1906 for which to dress his doll. Their varying sources of inspiration included works of art, literature, and historic fashion plates. 
necspenecmetu: Louis-Rolland Trinquesse, Le Feu aux Poudres, 18th century
Memoirs from the Bastille (Mémoires sur la Bastille, et la Détention de l’Auteur dans ce Château Royal, depuis le 27 Septembre 1780, jusqu’au 19 Mai 1781). LINGUET, SIMON-NICOLAS-HENRI. →18th century books, collected by book-aesthete
☞"Reason and the public interest began the revolution; intrigue and ambition have halted it. The vices of tyrants and slaves have changed it into a painful state of trouble and crisis." — Maximilien Robespierre (via crookedsin)
 Residenz, one of the largest and most beautiful baroque palaces in Wurzburg, Bavaria . This magnificent Baroque palace was created under the patronage of the prince-bishops Lothar Franz and Friedrich Carl von Schonborn in the 18th century. It took sixty years to complete; the palace was built from 1720 to 1744 and the interior finished in 1780. 
Frederick II (24 January 1712 – 17 August 1786), known as Frederick the Great, King in Prussia. Frederick was a proponent of enlightened absolutism. For years he was a correspondent of Voltaire, with whom the king had an intimate, if turbulent, friendship. He modernized the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service and promoted religious tolerance throughout his realm. Frederick patronized the arts and philosophers, and wrote flute music. Frederick is buried at his favorite residence,Sanssouci in Potsdam. Interested primarily in music and philosophy and not the arts of war during his youth, Frederick unsuccessfully attempted to flee from his authoritarian father, Frederick William I, with childhood friend, Hans Hermann von Katte, whose execution he was forced to watch after they had been captured.  When he was 18, Frederick plotted to flee to England with Katte and other junior army officers. While the royal retinue was near Mannheim , Robert Keith, Peter’s brother, had an attack of conscience when the conspirators were preparing to escape and begged Frederick William for forgiveness; Frederick and Katte were subsequently arrested and imprisoned in Küstrin. Because they were army officers who had tried to flee Prussia for Great Britain, Frederick William leveled an accusation of treason against the pair. The king threatened the crown prince with the death penalty, then considered forcing Frederick to renounce the succession in favour of his brother, Augustus William, although either option would have been difficult to justify to the Reichstag of the Holy Roman Empire. The king forced Frederick to watch the decapitation of his confidant Katte at Küstrin on 6 November, leaving the crown prince to faint away and suffer hallucinations for the following two days
18thcenturylove: Landscape Near Beauvais by Francois Boucher, 1740s
Memoirs Of The Court Of Marie Antoinette, Queen Of France, Complete - the Historic Memoirs of Madam Campan, First Lady in Waiting to the Queen (via the Project Gutenberg)
Francois Boucher - The music Lesson
distractionsoflola: detail of Marie-Louise de Parma as a Bride, 1765, oil on canvas by Anton Raphael Mengs (Museo del Prado).