Part 5.1 is the first of four parts of Chapter 5.

A Childhood at Versailles consists of the first 5 chapters of the memoirs of Mme de Boigne (1781-1866), née Adèle d’Osmond, who was a French salon hostess and writer.  She was born in the Château de Versailles and lived at the court of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette until her family fled to England during the Revolution.  Later in her long life, she married a rich soldier of fortune 30 years her senior, hosted a brilliant salon in Paris, and became an intimate of the last French queen, Marie-Amélie, consort of King Louis Philippe (r. 1830-1848).  Childless herself, Mme de Boigne addressed her memoirs to her grandnephew.  The memoirs were not published until 1907, under the title Récits d’une tante, or An Aunt’s Tales.  They’ve never been published in English, as far as I know, so I’ve decided to translate the first 5 chapters, the ones that take place mainly at Versailles, and post them here on this blog for interested readers to enjoy for free.

The chapters are quite lengthy, so I’ve broken each one into several parts. In Part 5.1, the author recounts her family’s sojourn in Rome after their flight from Paris.  While living in the Eternal City, they met many interesting people, including the last Stuart, Henry Cardinal York.  

A Childhood at Versailles, Chapter 5, Part 1 (5.1)

I shall quickly pass over our stay in Italy.  I have but a slight memory of it; I only remember hearing talk about the tiffs at Mesdames’ little court, which, even then, seemed to me to be of an extreme ridiculousness.  The quarrels of the two chief ladies-in-waiting were pushed to the point of dividing the small number of French people then at Rome.  One was either of the Narbonne party or the Chastellux party, and cordially detested one another.  

My parent’s attitude was decided by the honour that my mother had of belonging to Madame Adélaïde, which the Chastelluxes recognized, and they remained on good terms.  The Chastellux children were on intimate terms with me, as well as Louise de Narbonne, the duchess’s grand daughter.  All the same, in order not to create jealousy, we were all equally excluded from the princesses’ presence.  

I did not see Madame Adélaïde even three times during our stay in Rome.  In truth, I was past the age at which one amuses oneself with a child as with a lapdog.  Despite the domestic quarrels of which they were both witnesses and victims, their entourages never managed to drive a wedge between the two elderly princesses.  They died within days of one another, having always lived in the tenderest unity.  Madame Victoire had a great admiration for her sister, who returned it affectionately.  

The Abbé de Bernis is one of those fascinating, worldly prelates, more at home in the drawing room than the confessional, who inhabited the haut monde of pre-Revolution Paris and Versailles.  It was on 2 October in 1758 that the red biretta was bestowed on him.

The Cardinal de Bernis (1715-1794). Credit: Wikipedia.

The future Cardinal de Bernis was born in 1715 and took minor orders after finishing his studies at a seminary in Paris.  Before embarking on his political and diplomatic career he was known as a writer, indeed he was elected to the Académie Française at age 29. He was a friend and protégé of Mme de Pompadour, and through her influence was appointed ambassador to Venice (1752-1755).  He remarked on his appointment to this post, which was not one of the more important or prestigious ones, that the worst thing that could happen to him there would be to be forgotten.

Today we pay another visit to Lisbon’s Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA)* to have a look at Fragonard’s ‘The Two Cousins.’  As I’ve said in a previous post, Portugal is actually a great place to see French fine and decorative art because the Portuguese aristocracy collected it with such enthusiasm.

Fragonard’s ‘The Two Cousins’ as seen in the MNAA.

We’re switching gears now.

The Versailles Century was led by France, but it played out all over Europe, indeed the world, as we’ll see in due course.  This post is the first of several inspired by my travels in Portugal in April of 2016, when I visited Porto and Lisbon after leaving Paris and Versailles.  I’m going to bring you words and images about all the Versailles Century art and architecture I found in Europe’s westernmost Latin country.  As it happens, Portugal is a great place to see French fine and decorative art because the Portuguese elite was so heavily influenced by French taste.  Versailles lovers, don’t despair — there will be many more posts about the Chateau in future!

I don’t know about you, but when I think of 18th century painting, a handful of artists spring immediately to mind.  Two that leap fastest are Canaletto (1697-1768) and Bellotto (1721-1780), probably the most famous uncle and nephew artists in history, both known best for their cityscapes.  It was my luck that when I visited the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (the National Museum of Ancient Art) in Lisbon, there was a special exhibition of a work by Bellotto.  The museum, which we’ll call MNAA for short, went all out to highlight it: