Lady Mary Boyle and her son Charles by Sir Godfrey Kneller. I am breastfeeding my son at the moment (not right at this moment but. y’know, just generally) and I love this image as I think it is quite unusual for a portrait of the time to depict an ordinary mother nursing her child.
She looks a bit bored though doesn’t she? I tend to watch films and read books while I am nursing to alleviate the tedium. My Gosh, it gets so boring.
Anne Crane, Lady Belasyse by Lely.
Letitia Isabella, Lady Robartes by Lely. Yet another beauty from Charles II’s court. Lely really loved this head on hand pose.
Eleanor Needham, Lady Byron by Lely.
Possible portrait of Nell Gwynne by Lely.
Moll Davies by Lely.
Portrait of an unknown woman by Lely.
Possible portrait of Nell Gwynne by Lely.
Portrait by Lely.
Portrait of a lady by Thomas Murray.
Anne, Viscountess Bayning by Gerard Soest.
Portrait of a lady by Henry Tilson.
Hortense Mancini, Duchesse de Mazarin, a famous beauty from the court of Louis XIV transplanted to the court of Charles II. She was one of the most celebrated and notorious women of the era.
Ann Davis, Lady Lee by John Michael Wright.
You would be forgiven for thinking, based only on the evidence of their portraits by masters such as Van Dyck and Lely that people in the seventeenth century were vastly better looking than people today.
Louise, Duchess of Portsmouth by Mary Beale. The lovely Louise was a French aristocrat who became a spy for Louis XIV and mistress to Charles II.
Moll Davies by Mary Beale. Moll was a celebrated actress of the time who vied with Nell Gwynn for Charles II’s attentions.
Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland by Mary Beale. Besides Nell Gwynne, Barbara was the best known and longest serving of Charles II’s mistresses.
Isabella Willis by John Closterman.
Unknown woman by Alexander Cooper.
Lady Isabella Bentinck by Charles Dagar, one of the greatest beauties of the age.
Jane Hyde, Countess of Clarendon and Rochester by Michael Dahl another great beauty of the age.
This painting reminds me of Roger in Karleen Koen’s novels.
Jane, Mrs Myddleton by Henri Gascar, another famous beauty who was pursued by James II. She was rumoured to be horribly pretentious and to smell really nasty though!
Louise, Duchess of Portsmouth by Henri Gascar.
Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland by Henri Gascar.
Louise, Duchess of Portsmouth by Henri Gascar.
Jenny Myddleton, daughter of smelly, pretentious Jane Myddleton by Henri Gascar. She was reputed to be even more beautiful than her mother.
Frances Jennings, Duchess of Tyconnel by Henri Gascar. Frances was known as La Belle Jennings and was one of the greatest beauties at the court of Charles II.
Portrait of a lady by John Greenhill.
Portrait of a lady by Adriaen Hanneman.
Portrait of one of Catherine of Braganza’s ladies in waiting by Jacob Huysmans.
Portrait of a lady as Mary Magdalene by Kneller.
Moll Davies by Lely.
I am a huge, massive Agatha Christie fan. I used to be faintly embarrassed about this but have wholeheartedly embraced my love of retro crime fiction in recent years – mainly because I am old enough now not to care about the vagaries of fashion but also because Christie really does seem to be in vogue again, if she ever fell out.
Opinion is divided about the ITV dramatisations of her Miss Marple series and to some extent, justifiably so as they very rarely stick to the plots of the original books and even, shock horror, use books that didn’t feature Miss Marple at all. They also have a tendency to change or leave out crucial plot points, give characters sexualities that weren’t even implied in the books and swap murderers, as in The Body in the Library.
I don’t care though and have to admit that I really do love them. Over the top, brash and ridiculous they might well be but I adore their super kitsch fifties styling with nipped in waists, red lipstick and winged sunglasses. The fifties might well have been a miserable time for those who really lived through it but you would never guess it from the Marple series, where it is always sunny (unless Miss Marple needs to get caught in a snow storm) and life looks like it has never been better.
I think that my favourite episodes are The Moving Finger, which is just wonderful and very true to the original and Sleeping Murder, which took enormous liberties but was still immensely watchable and rather creepy. I also enjoyed At Bertram’s Hotel, which was exceedingly over the top and ultimately nonsensical but sometimes that is a good thing.
Geraldine McEwan’s portrayal of Miss Marple has come under a lot of fire over the years, mainly from people who compare it to Joan Hickson’s wry, colourless, rather tepid turn in the eighties. I liked it though – the idea of Miss Marple as a whispy, mousey spinster never sat entirely well with me and I infinitely preferred McEwan’s version with her crazy cardigans, twinkling eyes and sprightly wit. I was a smidgeon put out when I heard that she was leaving and being replaced by Julia McKenzie but am prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt and see how it goes.
A Pocket Full of Rye, the first of the Julia McKenzie Marple episodes is due to be screened on Sunday 6 September and frankly, I can’t wait. It features the usual all star cast, including several people most usually connected with comedy and also the very lovely Matthew Macfadyen and also Rupert Graves, who is the third most famous person to come from Weston super Mare.
Murder is Easy follows on Sunday 13 September. Now as any Christie fan will tell you, the original book doesn’t feature Miss Marple at all and is a standalone mystery involving the occult in a quiet village in Middle England. I’m going to reserve judgement until I have actually seen it though – it can’t be much worse than the excerable film version from the early eighties.
Other upcoming episodes of Marple are: They Do It With Mirrors (which I am really looking forward to as it has Joan Collins and the luminously beautiful Emma Griffiths Malin), Why Didn’t They Ask Evans? (with Rik Mayall in the cast) and, most excitingly The Mirror Crack’d, starring Lindsay Duncan as Marina Greig, which will probably be screened next year.
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Dave has offered to buy me a coat for my birthday as I never wear weather appropriate clothing over the Winter and it really annoys him when I trundle home from the pre-school drop off looking like a drowned rat with an incipient cold. I originally wanted one of the White Stuff coats but they only go up to size 16, which is usually fine as I am a size 12/14 but I also happen to have an enormous breast feeding bust, which is a bit of an annoyance if you want to buy something that does up at the front!
He has offered to get me this coat from Boden, which I rather love as it is all shiny and fitted and will make me feel a bit more glamorous at the school gates. Help me choose a colour!
Green – I have red hair and a lot of green clothes.
Red – really cheers me up and I have always wanted a bright red coat BUT red coat and red hair is probably a bit of a disaster isn’t it?
Black – I’m probably going to play safe and opt for this but is it a bit boring? I tend to wear a mixture of patterned dresses, skinny jeans and tops and gothy type stuff so this may be my best bet if I want to successfuly co-ordinate with all three.
Well, I braved letting someone else read my work and sent the first three chapters off to the very lovely Miss Nightingale from Beyond the Pale, whose opinion on these matters I trust ABSOLUTELY. To my relief, she really enjoyed it so I feel emboldened to Carry On and see what happens.
The chapter I am working on at the moment follows one of the characters, Cassandre on the fateful day in October 1789 when the mob marched on Versailles and brought the royal family and court back to Paris in their wake.
It is fun to write about Versailles as it was at the very end of the ancien régime, but sad too as you know that things will never be the same again both for France but also for the people, real and imagined who were involved in all of the upheaval.
I am having fun with Cassandre as she is like a kittenish Madame de Merteuil. Actually, she isn’t like Madame la Marquise at all in that she has a heart beneath all of the coquettry and hectic fan fluttering. I’m looking forward to exploring her character a lot more.
In the chapter, she accompanies Marie Antoinette to the Petit Trianon and is the one to break the news of the mob marching on the palace of Versailles. That afternoon at the Petit Trianon was the final beautiful, exquisite moment in the story of Marie Antoinette. Did she realise, as the carriage raced her back through the palace grounds to her husband’s side that she would never see it again? Did she gaze out of the windows and whisper goodbye?
Marie Antoinette’s mother of pearl and gold boudoir in Fontainebleau is one of the most exquisite and beautiful examples of eighteenth century interior design. It was created in 1786 by Barthélémy, Rousseau and Roland while the gorgeous furniture was mostly created by Riesener and Jacob – a collection of the most gifted and innovative designers of the period.
Not only that but it is believed that Louis XVI himself produced the locks for the doors.
Contrary to popular belief, the French royal court did not spend their entire privileged existence holed up in Versailles, geographically and culturally cut off from the rest of the country. If you believe Coppola’s Marie Antoinette, you would be forgiven for thinking that once she arrived in Versailles as Dauphine, she remained there until the fatal day in October 1789 when the mob carted her back to Paris. Not so. In reality, the court divided their time between Versailles, Rambouillet, Compiègne, Fontainebleau and then later on, Saint-Cloud.
The court travelled en masse to Fontainebleau in the Autumn so that the King could enjoy some of the finest hunting in France. Marie Antoinette was never very fond of the hunt, prefering to follow it at a distance in a carriage rather than become closely involved. A great contrast to the days of Louis XIV when his mistresses were admired for their almost Amazonian prowess in the field as well as the bedroom.
Marie Antoinette was never to become fond of Fontainebleau – it was enormous and sprawling, its stately edifice and richly painted interiors a reminder of its heyday in the sixteenth century when it had been the prefered residence of the Valois kings. There is something barbaric about Fontainebleau, with its dedication to the hunt and its rich, Renaissance interiors that would almost certainly have been extremely unappealing to Marie Antoinette, who felt isolated and desperately bored in her vast state apartment. The courtiers also grumbled – the château had an astonishing 172 apartments in which to house them but they were a whole day’s carriage journey away from Paris and cut off from the world, nestled within the enormous forest.
In an attempt to placate his occasionally petulant wife, Louis encouraged her to commission two exquisite rooms to either side of her state bedchamber – the salle de jeu and, hidden behind her enormous bed, the beautiful boudoir with its shimmering mother of pearl walls and sumptuous furniture, studded like fish scales with mother of pearl.
‘Light spills from the mother of pearl to the framed mirrors which surround the room, and bathes the matt gold panels that complement the pearly sheen of the silver paintwork. These panels combine Pomeian motifs with the garlands of flowers that were famous for their ‘simplicity’. Naturally, they included rose buds, but also, more unusually, daisies, cornflowers and ears of corn entwined with ribbons and garlands. Like the feet of the Jacob chairs and the mother of pearl furniture, the gold panelling repeats the theme of iridescence festooned with ribbons.
A dawn sky painted by Barthélémy floats above the high reliefs portraying the muses, carved in plaster by Roland. The magical effect of these materials and their consummate craftmanship must be completed in our imagination by the vision of voluminous, rustling taffeta, satin or gros de Tours dresses of white, blue or lilac. The reflections of two or three such apparitions in the glimmering light of the candelabra were enough to give an atmosphere of secret festivity to this little room, from which the sound of whispers and carefree laughter would spill out into the adjoining corridors.’ – Marie France Boyer, The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette.
Marie Antoinette had only three years left to enjoy her beautiful room before the Revolution ended the exquisite life that she had created for herself. It is incredible really that the boudoir remains intact, just as she had left it – not just because of the devastation wreaked during the revolution but also as a result of the ‘improvements’ of her successors, notably the Empresses Joséphine and Eugènie, both of whom would later reside at Fontainebleau and make their own changes.
"You'd find it easier to be bad than good if you had red hair," said Anne reproachfully. "People who haven't red hair don't know what trouble is." - Anne of Green Gables.
I am a middle class housewife, History geek, Versailles obsessive, Paris lover, historical fiction writer, Victorian Prostitute re-enactor, Art History graduate, committed vegetarian, GIN taster, curry lover and Pimms addict living in the deepest darkest West Country with my family.
I'm a member of the Whitechapel Society and London Historians and also a reviewer for the Historical Novel Society.
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