Petit Trianon
Encyclopedia
Château
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles
Palace of Versailles
The Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
in Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Design and construction
It was designed by Ange-Jacques GabrielAnge-Jacques Gabriel
Ange-Jacques Gabriel was the most prominent French architect of his generation.Born to a Parisian family of architects and initially trained by the royal architect Robert de Cotte and his father , whom he assisted in the creation of the Place Royale at Bordeaux , the younger Gabriel...
by the order of Louis XV
Louis XV of France
Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...
for his long-term mistress, Madame de Pompadour
Madame de Pompadour
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour, also known as Madame de Pompadour was a member of the French court, and was the official chief mistress of Louis XV from 1745 to her death.-Biography:...
, and was constructed between 1762 and 1768. But Madame de Pompadour died four years before its completion, and it was subsequently occupied by her successor, Madame du Barry
Madame du Barry
Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry was the last Maîtresse-en-titre of Louis XV of France and one of the victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.-Early life:...
. Upon his accession to the throne in 1774, the 20-year-old Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
gave the château and its surrounding park to his 19-year-old Queen Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
for her exclusive use and enjoyment. Marie longed to escape Louis and his court, and he gave her just the place.
The château of the Petit Trianon is a celebrated example of the transition from the Rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
style of the earlier part of the 18th century, to the more sober and refined, Neoclassical
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
style of the 1760s and onward. Essentially an exercise on a cube, the Petit Trianon attracts interest by virtue of its four facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
s, each thoughtfully designed according to that part of the estate it would face. The Corinthian order
Corinthian order
The Corinthian order is one of the three principal classical orders of ancient Greek and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric and Ionic. When classical architecture was revived during the Renaissance, two more orders were added to the canon, the Tuscan order and the Composite order...
predominates, with two detached and two semi-detached pillars on the side of the formal French garden, and pilasters facing both the courtyard and the area once occupied by Louis XV's greenhouses. Overlooking the former botanical garden of the king, the remaining facade was left bare. The subtle use of steps compensates for the differences in level of the château's inclined location.
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
would come to the Petit Trianon not only to escape the formality of court life, but also to shake off the burden of her royal responsibilities. At Versailles, she was under considerable pressure and judgement from both her family and the court, and the Petit Trianon was her place of ease and leisure where she could rest from those trials. Since all was "de par la Reine" (by order of the Queen), none were permitted to enter the property without the Queen's express permission (not even, it was said, Louis XVI). Such exclusivity alienated the court nobility, which she did very willingly, since only the queen's "inner circle" (including the Princess de Lamballe, and Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac
Gabrielle de Polastron, duchesse de Polignac
Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Duchess of Polignac was the favourite of Marie Antoinette, whom she first met when she was presented at the Palace of Versailles in 1775, the year after Marie Antoinette became the Queen of France...
) were invited.
A house of intimacy and of pleasure, the building was designed to require as little interaction between guests and servants as possible. To that end, the table in the salles à manger was conceived to be mobile, mechanically lowered and raised through the floorboards so that the servants below could set places sight unseen. The tables were never built, but the delineation for the mechanical apparatus can still be seen from the foundation.
Within the queen's apartment, one discerns Marie Antoinette's incessant need for privacy: the decor of her boudoir displays an inventiveness unique to the age, featuring mirrored panels that, by the simple turning of a crank, can be raised or lowered to obscure the windows. Her bedroom, although simple, is also elegant in accord with her general style, provided with furniture from Georges Jacob
Georges Jacob
Georges Jacob was one of the two most prominent Parisian master menuisiers, producing carved, painted and gilded beds and seat furniture and upholstery work for the French royal châteaux, in the early Neoclassical style that is usually associated with Louis Seize.Jacob arrived in Paris in 1754 and...
and Jean Henri Riesener
Jean Henri Riesener
Jean-Henri Riesener was the French royal ébéniste, working in Paris, whose work exemplified the early neoclassical Louis XVI style"....
. The wallpaper was painted by Jean-Baptiste Pillement
Jean-Baptiste Pillement
Jean-Baptiste Pillement was a painter and designer, known for his exquisite and delicate landscapes, but whose importance lies primarily in the engravings done after his drawings, and their influence in spreading the Rococo style and particularly the taste for chinoiserie throughout...
.
Moberly-Jourdain incident
The Moberly-Jourdain incidentMoberly-Jourdain incident
The Moberly–Jourdain incident, or the Ghosts of Petit Trianon or Versailles was an event that occurred on 10 August 1901 in the gardens of the Petit Trianon, involving two female academics, Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain...
is alleged to have occurred on August 10, 1901 in the gardens of the Petit Trianon. In 1911, two English academics, Charlotte Anne Moberly
Charlotte Anne Moberly
Charlotte Anne Moberly was an English academic. She was the daughter of George Moberly, and was made the first Principal of St. Hugh's College, Oxford...
and Eleanor Jourdain
Eleanor Jourdain
Eleanor Jourdain was an English academic and author, and Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford, 1915 to 1924. She rose to fame following a claim that she and a fellow teacher had slipped back in time to the period of the French Revolution while on a trip to Versailles, known as the...
, pseudonymously published a book entitled An Adventure, in which they claimed to have experienced a time slip
Time slip
A time slip is an alleged paranormal phenomenon in which a person, or group of people, travel through time via unknown means...
during a visit to the Petit Trianon, and seen Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....
as well as many other people of the same period. The book caused a sensation with the public despite dismissal by critics.
See also
- Subsidiary structures of the Palace of VersaillesSubsidiary structures of the Palace of VersaillesFive subsidiary structures located near the Palace of Versailles have a historical relation with the history and evolution of the palace. Of these five structure – the Ménagerie, the Pavillon de la Lanterne the Trianon de Porcelaine, the Grand Trianon , and the Petit Trianon – two have been...
- Hameau de la reine
- Établissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de VersaillesÉtablissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de VersaillesThe Établissement public du château, du musée et du domaine national de Versailles is a French public establishment , established in 1995, and working under the supervision of the French Ministry of Culture, in order to administer the Palace of Versailles.It is headed by Jean-Jacques Aillagon,...
- The design of the Kentucky Governor's MansionKentucky Governor's MansionThe Kentucky Governor's Mansion is an historic residence in Frankfort, Kentucky. It is located at the East lawn of the Capitol, at the end of Capital Avenue...
was inspired by Petit Trianon - The Koshland Mansion in San Francisco is a copy of le Petit Trianon http://www.sfcityguides.org/public_guidelines.html?article=205&submitted=TRUE&srch_text=&submitted2=&topic=Buildings%20and%20Theaters
External links
- Official site
- Panoramic view from the roof of the château in Quicktime VRQuickTime VRQuickTime VR is a type of image file format developed by Apple Inc. for QuickTime. It allows the creation and viewing of photographically-captured panoramas and the exploration of objects through images taken at multiple viewing angles...
- Ancient Places TV: HD Video of The Queen's Hamlet at the Petit Trianon