The Hameau de la Reine, The Queen's Hamlet) is a rustic
retreat in the park of the Château de Versailles built for Marie Antoinette in
1783 near the Petit Trianon in Yvelines, France. It served as a private meeting
place for the Queen and her closest friends, a place of leisure. Designed by
the Queen's favoured architect, Richard Mique with the help of the painter
Hubert Robert, it contained a meadowland with lakes and streams, a classical
Temple of Love on an island with fragrant shrubs and flowers, an octagonal belvedere,
with a neighbouring grotto and cascade. There are also various buildings in a
rustic or vernacular style, inspired by Norman or Flemish design, situated
around an irregular pond fed by a stream that turned a mill wheel. The building
scheme included a farmhouse, (the farm was to produce milk and eggs for the
queen), a dairy, a dovecote, a boudoir, a barn that burned down during the
French Revolution, a mill and a tower in the form of a lighthouse. Each
building is decorated with a garden, an orchard or a flower garden. The largest
and most famous of these houses is the "Queen's House", connected to
the Billiard house by a wooden gallery, at the center of the village. A working
farm was close to the idyllic, fantasy-like setting of the Queen’s Hamlet.
The hameau is the best-known of a series of rustic garden
constructions built at the time, notably the Prince of Condé's Hameau de
Chantilly (1774–1775) which was the inspiration for the Versailles hamlet. Such
model farms, operating under principles espoused by the Physiocrats, were
fashionable among the French aristocracy at the time. One primary purpose of
the hameau was to add to the ambiance of the Petit Trianon, giving the illusion
that it was deep in the countryside rather than within the confines of
Versailles. The rooms at the hameau allowed for more intimacy than the grand
salons at Versailles or at the Petit Trianon.
Inspired by a wave of naturalism in art, architecture, and
garden design, the Hameau de la Reine was constructed between 1782 and 1783.
The garden surroundings of the Petit Trianon, of which the hameau de la Reine
is an extension, began their transformation from formal pattern gardens. Under
Louis XV it had been an arboretum and the new arrangements eliminated this
famous botanical garden, replacing it with a more informal "natural"
garden of winding paths, curving canals and lakes under the direction of Antoine
Richard, gardener to the Queen. Richard Mique modified the landscape design to
provide vistas of lawn to west and north of the Petit Trianon, encircled by
belts of trees. Beyond the lake to the north, the hameau was sited like a
garden stage set, initially inspired in its grouping and vernacular building by
Dutch and Flemish genre paintings, philosophically influenced by Rousseau's
cult of "nature", and reflecting exactly contemporary picturesque
garden principles set forth by Claude-Henri Watelet and by ideas of the
philosophes, their "radical notions co-opted into innocent forms of
pleasure and ingenious decoration" as William Adams has pointed out.
Artists played a more direct role in French picturesque than they probably had
done in England, as can be seen by Hubert Robert's involvement.
The stylistic design of the Hameau de la Reine was
influenced by the hameau de Chantilly, a similarly rustic “village” with
half-timbered façades and reed-thatched roofs. A wave of naturalism and an
affinity towards the “simple” life was sweeping across France in the 18th
century. French aristocrats loved to act like shepherds and shepherdesses,
while still enjoying the comforts of their social position. This idealism of
the natural life came from the extremely influential works of Jean Jacques
Rousseau, who emphasized Nature. The hamlet seemed completely rustic and
natural from the outside, while the Rococo interior provided the desired
comfort and luxury of the Queen and her friends.
The Petit Trianon, originally built for Madame de Pompadour
under the reign of Louis XV, was a private domain. Encircling the Petit Trianon
was the Jardin Anglais (the English Garden), a wilder style of garden that
arose in response to traditional French manicured gardens. The Hamlet is built
in a hybrid architectural style. A combination of Norman, Flemish, and French
styles came together to create the village full of sylvan charm. Typically Norman,
the cottages have half-timbered façades and reed coverings. The brick,
“sparrow-stepped” gables and the stained glass windows are distinctly Flemish.
The roofs covered with dormer windows and the plaster-covered façades, though,
were native to France. The French architect Richard Mique designed and built
the Hamlet with the garden in mind, and it is almost an extension of the Jardin
Anglais. His buildings lend themselves to the surrounding landscape in their
arrangement around a small lake, giving the illusion of a perfect and
functioning village.
The barn, occasionally used as a ballroom, was destroyed
during the French Revolution, while the rest of the houses survived the
tumultuous period of French history.
Courtiers at the Palace of Versailles constantly surrounded
Marie Antoinette, leaving her in need of a refuge. She escaped the
responsibilities and structure of court life to her private estate. The Hamlet
was part of Marie Antoinette’s estate, and she enjoyed dressing as a young
shepherdess or milkmaid and acting like a peasant, while surrounded by the
comforts of a royal lifestyle. This unintentional mockery of the economically
depressed French peasants helped build the resentment towards the monarchy
among the French people, eventually leading to the French Revolution.
While still in power, Marie Antoinette enjoyed acting as a
tableau vivant, as if she were part of a painting. She brought her idyllic,
picturesque village to life by stocking the barn with animals, and bringing in
“simple” people, such as milkmaids and herdsmen, to act like residents of the
Hamlet. Marie Antoinette would stroll around her perfect world in simple
peasants' garb with her children, part of an idealized Nature. Her closest
friends joined her in her ornamental village, where they also enjoyed
pretending to live a simple life. Their isolation at the Hameau caused
suspicion among the French people. Already resentful of Marie Antoinette for
her profligate spending in times of economic depression, the secrecy
surrounding her life of amusement led to suspected hedonism and scandal. It was
rumored that Marie Antoinette had lovers, and they met at the Hameau, a surreal
place that was completely her own. The extravagance and subtle mockery of peasant
life did not help Marie Antoinette’s already suffering image.
In spite of its idyllic appearance, the hamlet was a real
farm, fully managed by a farmer appointed by the Queen, with its vineyards,
fields, orchards and vegetable gardens producing fruit and vegetables consumed
at the royal table. Animals from Switzerland, according to the instructions of
the Queen, were raised on the farm. For this reason the place was often called
"the Swiss hamlet".
The Queen sought refuge in peasant life, milking cows or
sheep, which were carefully maintained and cleaned by the servants. She
preferred to wear simple clothing uncharacteristic to the frivolous fashion of
the French Court while at the hameau, and often dressed in a sun hat and
informal muslin dress, a Polonaise gown, or a Chemise à la Reine. The chemise,
worn without panniers and with a high waistline, was first worn by women in
warmer climates in the colonies and was popularised amongst the aristocracy
through Marie Antoinette. The simplicity and high waistline of the garment
would lay the foundations for Regency/Empire fashion in the later decades
during and after the Revolution. The Queen would often wear a straw Bergère hat
and a fichu alongside a Polonaise gown; the term Polonaise referring to the dress
of Polish shepherdesses who would hoist and drape their overskirts in two or
three loops in order to keep their dress clean while farming. Marie
Antoinette's wardrobe was generally imitative of the peasantry of the period.
Marie Antoinette used buckets of Sèvres porcelain specially
decorated with her arms by the Manufacture Royale. The place was completely
enclosed by fences and walls, and only intimates of the Queen were allowed to
access it. During the Revolution, "a misogynistic, nationalistic and class-driven
polemic swirled around the hameau, which had previously seemed a harmless
agglomeration of playhouses in which to act out a Boucher pastorale." The
queen was accused by many of being frivolous, and found herself a target of
innuendos, jealousy and gossip throughout her reign. Although for Marie
Antoinette, the hameau was an escape from the regulated life of the Court at
Versailles, in the eyes of French people, the queen seemed to be merely amusing
herself.
Cottages
Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet consisted of a variety of
different cottages and buildings, all built around a small lake. Each building
had a specific function, and each played its part in the daily life of the
Hamlet. The twelve cottages constructed in the hamlet can be divided into two
groups: five were reserved for use by the Queen; the other seven had a
functional purpose and were used effectively for agriculture. Marie Antoinette
had her own house, connected to the pool. Nearby was her boudoir. The mill and
the dairy received frequent visits from the Queen.
Queen’s House and Billiard Room
The Queen's house and billiard room is situated in the
middle of the Hamlet, and it is the largest and most important building. Its
construction is innovative: two rustic buildings are connected by a covered
gallery that is curved in a half-moon shape. A spiral staircase offers access
to the second floor on one end of the house. These buildings included the
Queen’s private chambers, as well as her salons and her parlors. The upper
level comprises the petit salon, also known as the "room of the
nobles", an anteroom in the form of a "Chinese cabinet" and the
large living room with wood panelling hung with tapestries of Swiss style in
embroidered wool. From the room's six windows, the Queen could easily control
the work fields and activity of the hamlet. Access is via the staircase of the
round tower. At the center of the room is a harpsichord which Marie Antoinette
loved to play. On the ground floor, paved with single slabs of stone, the
building includes a backgammon room and a dining room. The lyre-backed chairs
in mahogany lined with green Morocco, were created by Georges Jacob. To the
left, another building housing the billiard room is connected to the Queen's
house by a wooden gallery decorated with trellises and twelve hundred St.
Clement faience pots, marked in the blue figures of the Queen. Upstairs, a
small apartment which seems to have been inhabited by the architect Richard
Mique, has five rooms including a library. Despite the rustic appearance of
facades, the interior finish and furnishings are luxurious and have been
created by the carpenter Georges Jacob and the ébéniste Jean-Henri Riesener.
Inside Marie Antoinette's pretend 'hamlet' in the grounds of
Versailles as it opens to the public for first time as part of £326million
restoration project
The Hameau de la Reine was constructed in 1783 about two
kilometres away from the main chateau
Majestic building was modelled on her vision of a
countryside farm and took three years to complete
Now the attraction in north central France is expected to
welcome seven million visitors every year
By PHOEBE SOUTHWORTH FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 19:06 BST, 4 May 2018 | UPDATED: 23:51 BST, 4 May
2018
Marie Antoinette's stunning hamlet in the grounds of the
Château de Versailles has opened to the public for the first time after an
enormous £326million restoration project.
The Hameau de la Reine, constructed more than two centuries
ago in 1783, is situated two kilometres away from the main chateau in north
central France and served as a haven for the queen.
Modelled on her vision of a countryside farm, she used it to
entertain guests, introduce royal children to nature and animals - and even
reportedly to play 'dress up' when she got bored of palace life.
Antoinette's single bedroom, with a protective curtain which
could be pulled around the wooden bed and a long mantelpiece in front of a
large mirror.
Antoinette's single bedroom, with a protective curtain which
could be pulled around the wooden bed and a long mantelpiece in front of a
large mirror
The young queen would allegedly dress in as a shepherdess or
milkmaid and take great join in 'acting like a peasant' while at her hameau.
And although she loved pretending to work the farm, the
hameau and its animals were kept in pristine condition by her many servants.
As this behaviour reached the ears of the people, it was not
well received, and interpreted by many as mockery of their lifestyle.
Although she had been popular during the early days of her
reign, her popularity swiftly fell over her reign and she became a symbol of
the excesses of the monarchy.(…)
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