18th century blog

Yesterday I went to “open house” at the royal opera in Stockholm. They had a tour showing the making of costumes, props and such, and there was also an exhibition of antique costumes, Detaljer, including some 18th century things.

Read more »

Marie Antoinette (2006)
This is one of my favourite movies. It guess it doesn’t really have much of a plot, but it’s extremely gorgeous to watch, and it’s one of those movies where the music fits so well with the pictures that the (already good) songs become even better than on their own. Kirsten Dunst plays Marie Antoinette, and while the way she is portrayed isn’t exactly like my own vision of Marie Antoinette, I think she’s amazing and so charming and beautiful. I also love Rose Byrne as Polignac.

While the 1938 Marie Antoinette movie focuses on the last part of her life, this one is almost all about her early days at the French court, which to me is more interesting. It doesn’t aim at perfect historical correctness but I think it’s still fairly correct.

The clothes and sets are absolutely gorgeous. It’s probably the most beautiful movie I’ve seen. The only thing that bothers me a little is that while many of the hairdos are great, some of them, particularly Marie Antoinette’s poufs, aren’t that great, and don’t look much like the actual poufs of the 1770s. In the documentary on the DVD someone says they wished they could have put more effort into the hair, but they put all of the effort and money into the clothes so they didn’t have time, or something like that. I would love to see what the movie would have looked like if they had been able to do more with the hair. Some of the hair you see on the extras is better though, strangely enough.

All in all I think this is an amazing movie and I watch it very often. You can see some more movie stills and promotional pictures behind the cut.

Read more »

Self portrait, 1782.

French painter Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun on Wikipedia.

A good site with tons of her paintings: The art of Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun

Some of her paintings after the cut.

Edit: Updated this post with more paintings and better quality pictures.

Read more »

Click the picture above to see photos from the event “Journée Grand Siècle” at Vaux le Vicomte, from the site Mes Menus Plaisirs by Lisette la Cousette. More photos from this event can be seen in an earlier blog entry.

My outfit from another day at he 18th century weeks at Skansen.

The opening of the 18th century weeks at Skansen was yesterday. Here are some photos of my outfit and Skogaholm manor at Skansen.

Read more »

A video from an event held by 18th century society Lumières. There are some more videos from the same event and other Lumières events here.

Portrait by Boucher, 1758.

Madame de Pompadour on Wikipedia.

Some more portraits of her after the cut.

Read more »

1770s.

Portrait of Boucher by Gustav Lundberg

French rococo painter François Boucher on Wikipedia.

Some of his paintings after the cut.

Edit: Updated this post with better quality pictures.

Read more »

The Princesse de Lamballe on Wikipedia. Some more portraits after the cut.

Read more »

Portrait by Vigée-Le Brun.

Marie Antoinette on Wikipedia.
Marie Antoinette online.
Marie Antoinette, queen of France.

Many more portraits after the cut.

Read more »

Swedish portrait painter Alexander Roslin on Wikipedia, and on Swedish Wikipedia for slightly more information (in Swedish).

More paintings after the cut.

Edit: updated this post with more paintings and better quality pictures.

Read more »

Portrait by Jean-Louis Voille.

Empress consort of Russia Maria Feodorovna on Wikipedia.

More portraits after the cut.

Read more »