A portrait of Mary Hamilton Beckford, painted in 1799 by Benjamin West. This graceful portrait is a formidable testament to the good breeding, aristocratic heritage and excellent taste of the sitter. The eye is drawn to the elegant house in the background and to the book of music on Mrs Beckford’s lap, both carefully placed to ensure that any onlookers are made fully aware that they are in the presence of a lady who is both talented and well heeled.
I was very excited to hear about the new upcoming exhibition at Hampton Court Palace this summer: The Wild, the Beautiful and The Damned, which looks at the beautiful and rather decadent art work produced under the aegis of the later Stuart courts.
This is particularly well timed for me as I am working on a novel about Charles II’s youngest sister and need to go to Hampton Court Palace any way for a bit of a research poke about. I’ve been looking at a lot of Lely paintings lately as part of my work on this book and as usual have fallen hopelessly in love with his peachy, drowsy eyed, sultry lipped sitters. Okay, they may well all look pretty much the same but, seriously, who cares when they look completely gorgeous?
‘The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned, explores the meaning of beauty, and the lives and loves of the courtesans and libertines who lived and died in the Stuart Court during the reigns of Charles II, James II, William III & Mary II and Anne (1660-1714).
At the heart of the exhibition will be portraits of Charles II’s principal mistresses, including Nell Gwyn and Barbara Villiers, brought together at the palace for the first time. Also on display are the resident ‘beautiful women’ of the Royal Court: Peter Lely’s ‘Windsor Beauties’ and Godfrey Kneller’s ‘Hampton Court Beauties’, as we explore their lives and reputations amidst the elegance and decadence of the late 17th century. They will be joined by other Royal Collection paintings, rarely seen portraits from private and public collections, and exquisite fashion accessories, as the exhibition brings to life the glamour and magnificence of the Baroque period.
Visitors will be taken on a journey through the Queens State apartments, guided by the lives of the virtuous and the corrupt. Discover what beauty meant at court – how to display grace and how to use looks to gain attention and influence. Visitors will learn about the beauty secrets of the day, marvel at the fashions and elegance of court life, but also learn what happens when beauty fades, and when a life of virtue is rewarded by obscurity, and a life of vice by syphilis and death. The exhibition explores the story of how kings, queens and courtesans swept away the Puritanical solemnity of the mid-17th century, and attempted to rewrite the moral code of social behaviour.
Brett Dolman, Historic Royal Palaces exhibition curator, said: “Visitors to the exhibition will discover that ‘Beauty’ is not just an aesthetic experience: it is an instrument of ambition, a conduit to pleasure and a magnet for sleaze. This is a story about great art, but also about mistresses and adultery. Visitors will understand what beauty meant and how it was used in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and they will reflect, perhaps, on their own appreciation of beauty today in the 21st century.
The exhibition explores the ambiguity at the heart of Hampton Court Palace; beauty was a good thing, a reflection of divine perfection, an indication of virtue, but it was also a good excuse to decorate your bedchamber with soft-core private delights. Beauty was admired and revered, but also pursued and possessed. In the exotic world of the Restoration court, beauty could be exploited: women used it to command a new personal and political influence at the heart of government, but were themselves chased and abused, pilloried as whores.”
Charles II, the ‘merry monarch, ruled for twenty-five flamboyant, indulgent and decadent years and pursued ‘beauty’ in all its forms. He ruled over a court famous for its elegance and its magnificence, and he collected artworks and mistresses with equal enthusiasm. He fathered a dozen illegitimate children, but left no legitimate heirs. His brother, James II, matched a similar thirst for infidelity with a less acceptable taste for catholicism, and was turfed out of the country after only three years as king. James’s two daughters, Mary and Anne, who had grown up amidst the debauchery of the Stuart court, each became queens in their own right. The beautiful baroque splendour of Hampton Court was remodelled during the dying days of the last Stuart queens.‘ — from the official press release.
I absolutely cannot wait to see this and will, of course, be reported back to you all straight away just as soon as I have! I can’t imagine anything more splendid than seeing these wonderful art works in such a fabulous setting.
The Wild, The Beautiful and the Damned is running from the 5th April 2012 until the 30th September 2012. Tickets are £15.40 for adults and £7.70 for children under sixteen. There are also going to be special late openings on the first Monday of every month between May and September and also ‘Salacious Gossip’ evening tours giving raunchy little titbits that aren’t suitable for children’s ears!
I’ll be combining my visit to this with a trip to Kensington Palace, which reopens on the 26th March after a £12 million transformation. I can’t wait to see the Victoria Revealed permanent exhibit that I was told about on my visit to the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection and also the new display of dresses worn by Diana, Princess of Wales.
(Many thanks to Tim, the HRP press officer for the information and poster picture!)
They’ve recently reconstructed how they think Madame de Pompadour’s rooms at Versailles may have looked when she lived in them. How beautiful is this bedroom? It’s clear from looking at her belongings and portraits that Madame was fond of what I always call ‘mermaid colours’: the rich and varying blue and green hues of the sea and sky.
It’s reminiscent of her best known portrait by Boucher, which was painted in 1756 and depicts the Marquise in her rooms at Versailles, surrounded by a plethora of objects that are intended to show off how she was not only a highly finished piece of nature but also an intellectual at the same time.
Like Marie Antoinette and the Empress Joséphine, Madame de Pompadour loved to surround herself with beautiful flowers at all times and her rooms must have been crammed full of fragrant blooms grown just for her in the hot houses of Versailles. She went further though and united her twin loves of flowers and fine china, as in this gorgeous jardinière from Sèvres.
She had a garden of realistic looking china flowers at her château at Bellevue, cunningly fashioned so that they smelt of a heady floral oil. The effect must have been absolutely divine but was also divinely expensive.
Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour were both great patrons of Sèvres and regularly hosted sales of their pieces in the royal apartments at Versailles. They were also fond of presenting dinner services or smaller, more intimate knick knacks as gifts to friends, visiting ambassadors or foreign royalty. This pair of pot pourri vases was created by Sèvres in 1762 and are painted in the lovely shade of blue green that Madame de Pompadour particularly favoured.
The couple also seem to have had a particular fondness for clocks and this is a particularly lovely example, again from Sèvres in around 1762.
The Chinoiserie style was big news in eighteenth century Europe and Madame de Pompadour was as keen as anyone to acquire pieces inspired by the art of China.
Madame de Pompadour loved art and artists but seems to have a particular fondness for sculpture, commissioning several significant pieces during her tenure as royal mistress. She particularly loved ‘Cupid fashioning a bow out of the club of Hercules’ by Edme Bouchardon.
This lovely piece, ‘L’Amour Menacant’ by Falconet was also a favourite.
It’s not surprising really that she had herself sculpted several times over. This lovely piece is by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle and was created in 1751, just as Madame de Pompadour was at the very peak of her power.
"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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