MARIE-ANTOINETTE’S BOUDOIRS

VERSAILLES

Versailles gardens
Versailles
The Cabinet de la Méridienne—Marie-Antoinette’s boudoir

In 1781 Marie-Antoinette was pregnant for the second time. She was convinced the child would
be a son—the highly desired Dauphin.

She had her favourite architect Richard Mique design a boudoir directly behind her official bed-
chamber which was a celebration of the anticipated birth. The emblems on the boiseries included symbols of marital love and dolphins (Dauphin is French for dolphin).

It turned out Marie-Antoinette was right. A month after her new boudoir was completed she did
indeed give birth to the desired Dauphin.

To ensure privacy, the architect had to create a new walkway so that the staff did not have to cross the boudoir.

Marie-Antoinette spent as much time as she could in this delicious private little (14 sq meter) space. She often escaped to the day bed (“meridienne”) there.

The mirror panels next to the day bed conceal a door which leads to her official bed chamber

PETIT TRIANON

parigi_versailles_06_trianon__jpg_1200_630_cover_85
Petit Trianon
Cabinet de glaces mouvantes
The “Cabinet de glaces mouvantes” (moving mirrors) - Marie-Antoinette’s boudoir at the Petit Trianon

When Marie-Antoinette took over the Petit Trianon, she focussed her efforts on changing the garden.
Louis XV’s botanical garden was replaced by the new “English style” garden complete with a river and
island.
One of the first interior changes Marie-Antoinette made was to remove Louis XV’s private staircase and
coffee room next to the room she now used as her bedroom and replace it with a boudoir.

Marie-Antoinette's Bedchamber at the Petit Trianon. Entry to the boudoir

The entry door to the boudoir is on the left of the bed.

On the other side of Marie-Antoinette’s bedroom, she replaced Louis XV’s botanical library with a “cabinet de toilette”, which did not contain a toilet*.

The “cabinet de toilette” was where Marie-Antoinette had her hair and make up done. Even though Marie-Antoinette deliberately reduced the staff she brought with her to the Petit Trianon— to a total of six people – two of them were hairdressers.

*In keeping with the confusing labels of the rooms, the toilet was in a small room called the “cabinet de
garde-robe” (which was not used as a wardrobe) behind the wall opposite the windows in the bedroom.

The bathroom visitors pass leaving Marie-Antoinette’s apartment dates from the time of the Duchess of Orleans, almost 50 years after Marie-Antoinette left the Petit Trianon.

THE BOUDOIR’S “GLACES MOUVANTES”

Louis XV’s original private staircase and coffee room opened onto the outside steps on one side and directly overlooked the garden on the other.

To ensure Marie-Antoinette’s privacy in her new boudoir, a unique solution was provided by the court’s
mechanic from the royal “garde meuble”. He installed an innovative system using mirrors to cover the
windows from inside. The mirrors could be raised or lowered on a system of pulleys and springs.

The boudoir with one mirror up and the other half way down
The boudoir with both mirrors all the way down
The ground floor with one of the mirrors half way down. On the wall on the left you can see where Louis XV’s staircase was.
Marie-Antoinette had a library directly above the boudoir. The superstructure of the mechanism is concealed in the section under each window, made to look like a stool.

Two years before the French Revolution, Marie-Antoinette decided to refurnish the interior of the Petit Trianon. Her interior designer commissioned new boiseries for the boudoir. They were the latest fashion at the time, known as “arabesque”. She had already used this theme for her original boudoir at Fontainebleau.

FONTAINEBLEAU

Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau

THE TURKISH BOUDOIR

Marie-Antoinette's Turkish Boudoir at Fontainebleau
Marie-Antoinette’s Turkish boudoir was reopened in 2015 after seven years of restoration work. The gilding was simply cleaned.

Marie-Antoinette was an avid follower of fashion. The “Turkish” style was popular for smaller private spaces. It was a fantasy view of the Orient with symbols of the Ottoman empire—turbaned people, strings of pearls, camels, crescent moons and so on. Madame de Pompadour had, as usual, led the way. The private residence she built in Bellevue in 1750 featured a Turkish bedroom, complete with paintings of  Madame de Pompadour dressed as a Sultana.

In 1776 Louis XVI’s younger brother had a “cabinet de Turque” in his new apartment at Versailles. The
following year, when Marie-Antoinette was on a visit to the Chateau of Fontainebleau she decided she
wanted to have her own Turkish boudoir above the official Queen’s bed chamber. Work was completed in a very short time.

Marie-Antoinette could access her boudoir directly via a spiral staircase in the room next to her bedroom. The same mechanical engineer who had installed the sliding mirrors in her boudoir at the Petit Trianon installed a sliding mirror which was even more sophisticated. The mirror, which could slide across to cover the window overlooking the garden, was operated by the push of a button. To minimise the noise he covered the pulleys etc with woollen fabric.

A two way mirror separated the boudoir from the “cabinet de toilette”.

This photo shows what is original from the time of Marie-Antoinette.

The room is currently displayed with the furniture ordered by Josephine when Napoleon occupied Fontainebleau after the French Revolution. She turned it into a small bedroom.

In Marie-Antoinette’s boudoir there was an ottoman in the niche in front of the mirror.

To add to the atmosphere, sculptured incense burners were attached to the wall (circled right), allowing the 20 square meter room to be filled with beautiful floral fragrances.
The camel firedogs which were in the marble fireplace are now in the Louvre. The furniture was sold during the French Revolution and they are all that remains in France.

THE SILVER BOUDOIR

Nine years after the creation of Marie-Antoinette’s Turkish Boudoir at Fontainebleau, she decided
she wanted a new boudoir next to her bedroom on the same level. Marie Leszczyknsa had put her
own version of a boudoir there 50 years earlier.

The “Silver” boudoir (the silver walls are actually white gold) once again reflects the taste for
exotic historical themes. The walls have Pompeian themes. Over each of the four doors are
sculptured figures representing the muses. The new furniture ordered for the boudoir included a
variety of chairs, a firescreen and footstool.

Reisener created two pieces of furniture for the room—a small table and a roll top desk in mother of pearl set in diamond shaped gilded copper. The two pieces were tracked down in 1947 to a London antique fair but they had been sold to a man in New York. 

The curator of the Louvre succeeded in getting the new owner to agree to allow the table to be displayed at the Louvre and agreed that if he were to sell the roll top desk he would give them first option.  In 1955 they were able to buy back the desk thanks to a benefactor.  In 1961 both original pieces of furniture were back in place.

In 1979 the original footstool was purchased. A museum in Lisbon has one of the original armchairs. Two copies were made of the original and covered with the same fabric.

The original firescreen was found but it was given by the owner to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

MARIE-ANTOINETTE’S BABY’S CRADLE

When Marie-Antoinette asked Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun to paint a portrait of her with her children,
the youngest child Sophie was depicted in her cradle.

The portrait had to be adjusted when the 11 month old baby died during the time it was being
painted. The green silk, which was typically used as it was regarded as the best colour for a tranquil
environment encouraging sleep, is in shadow, turning it to almost black.

The painting was originally in Marie-Antoinette’s bedroom but when her older son died she could
no longer bear to look at it and had it removed from her apartment. That saved it from being
destroyed during the French Revolution and the painting can now be seen in the Queen’s
apartment at Versailles.

A PRINCESS' BED IN PARIS