Marie-Antoinette's legacy : the politics of French garden patronage and picturesque design, 1775-1867 / Susan Taylor-Leduc.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Taylor-Leduc, Susan, author.

Series:

Spatial imageries in historical perspective.

Spatial imageries in historical perspective

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gardens--France--History--18th century.

Gardens.

Gardens--France--History--19th century.

France--Queens--Biography.

France.

Marie Antoinette, Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France, 1755-1793--Knowledge--Gardening.

Marie Antoinette.

Josephine, Empress, consort of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1763-1814--Knowledge--Gardening.

Josephine.

Marie Louise, Empress, consort of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1791-1847--Knowledge--Gardening.

Marie Louise.

Eugénie, Empress, consort of Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, 1826-1920--Knowledge--Gardening.

Eugénie.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (316 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, 2022.

Summary:

Challenging the established historiography that frames the French picturesque garden movement as an international style, this book contends that the French picturesque gardens from 1775 until 1867 functioned as liminal zones at the epicenter of court patronage systems. Four French consorts - queen Marie-Antoinette and empresses Joséphine Bonaparte, Marie-Louise and Eugénie - constructed their gardens betwixt and between court ritual and personal agency, where they transgressed sociopolitical boundaries in order to perform gender and identity politics. Each patron endorsed embodied strolling, promoting an awareness of the sentient body in artfully contrived sensoria at the Petit Trianon and Malmaison, transforming these places into spaces of shared affectivity. The gardens became living legacies, where female agency, excluded from the garden history canon, created a forum for spatial politics. Beyond the garden gates, the spatial experience of the picturesque influenced the development of cultural fields dedicated to performances of subjectivity, including landscape design, cultural geography and the origination of landscape aesthetics in France.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Spatial Legacies

Prologue: Consorts and Fashionistas

1 A Gambling Queen: Marie-Antoinette’s Gamescapes (1775–1789)

2 Revolutionary Surprises (1789–1804)

3 A Créole Empress: Joséphine at Malmaison (1799–1810)

4 The Imperial Picturesque: Napoléon, Joséphine, and Marie-Louise (1810–1814)

5 Empress Eugénie: Picturesque Patrimony at the Universal Exposition of 1867

Epilogue

Index

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 15 Nov 2024).

ISBN:

9789048552634

904855263X

OCLC:

1350748434