Marie-Antoinette's Private Retreat at the Legion of Honor

In a world-exclusive exhibition "Marie-Antoinette and the Petit Trianon at Versailles," contents of the guillotined queen's private retreat are currently on display at the Legion of Honor through February 17, 2008.
"Since Petit Trianon closed for renovation, Legion of Honor seemed like an appropriate venue to host this one-in-a-lifetime exhibition," said Diane B. Wilsey, President of the Board of Trustees, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, during the press preview last month. She also reminded Marie-Antoinette's own words about her beloved dwelling: "Je suis moi" [That's me].
Director of Versailles, Pierre Arizzoli-Clementel, who attended the press preview, said that Marie-Antoinette "made all the other queens we had in the palace before her disappear."
That was the first time, he said, when a woman, however royal, "had the first role of her own," thus manifesting "the beginning of feminism." While decorating her palace to suit her taste, the queen hired the best cabinet and porcelain makers and oversaw the landscaping which included the largest in France English garden.
Maison Breguet made watches for the queen (finished long after her death due to an elaborate process of thorough watchmaking).
During the French Revolution, the queen's palace was utilized as a bistro, and "Englishmen paid to sleep in the queen's bed." All the contents of Petit Trianon were sold at auctions, and it took decades to recover only about 10 to 20% of the original estate.
"I am an Englishman," said Martin Chapman, Curator of European Decorative Arts at Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "One of those who would like to stay at Petit Trianon..." and went on, describing in great detail the interior decor, floral and harvest patterns of the furniture upholstery and pearl-and-cornflower China patterns chosen by the queen according to her taste for natural simplicity.
He mentioned an episode of the palace life when Marie-Antoinette, being "a bit of a prude," ordered a fashionable French painting of water nymphs removed for containing too much nudity and replaced by an Austrian canvas from her childhood, depicting her siblings in an amateur theatre performance.
Both paintings are presented in the exhibition along with furniture, porcelain, jewelry, and portraits of the queen and her family members and contemporaries.
Legion of Honor is located at 34th Ave., San Francisco. For information, call 415-750-3600 or visit www.legionofhonor.org