Treasures from Versailles.(Current and coming)(Marie-Antoinette and the Petit Trianon at Versailles)

In a far corner of the park at the Chateau de Versailles in France is the Petit Trianon, an elegant neoclassical pavilion conceived by Louis XV and built between 1762 and 1768 for Madame de Pompadour whose death in 1764 precluded her from seeing it realized. The residence had its heyday during the reign of Louis XVI, when Marie Antoinette, who had received it as a gift from her husband upon her accession in 1774, made it into her personal residence and pleasure ground.

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The Petit Trianon's interiors reflected Marie Antoinette's personal taste, with floral motifs ornamenting the furniture, fabrics, and porcelains. The royal dinner service at the chateau, for example, was decorated with images of roses to symbolize her Austrian Habsburg family, pansies to represent royalty, and cornflowers, which were her favorite. Among the furnishings in her bedroom were chairs and footstools decorated with lilies of the valley, pinecones, and ears of wheat, and a mahogany table adorned with a frieze of sunflowers, thistle leaves, and dogs' heads to represent the queen's pets. Movable mirror panels could be raised to cover the windows, offering the queen privacy from the prying eyes of the king's courtiers.

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