Marie-Antoinette, need I say more!
Exhibitions at the V&A and the Conciergerie
On the door of the exhibition as I finally, sadly, left for the train station …..
Bienvenue and welcome back to Musee Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. In between organizing all the things I want to tell you about the Eglise de la Madeleine and the exhibition at the Fondation Azzadine Alaia and visiting the new Fondation Cartier (which is amazing and which is a stone’s throw from the Louvre and the Place Colette), I took a day trip to London! Because the Marie Antoinette exhibition at the V & A which Ginevra and I should have seen on our way to or from Scotland last year but didn’t, is almost over and because there was a sale on Eurostar tickets in January.
If I had to describe my day in London in one word, it would be Delightful. If I was asked to add two more words, they would be, without a doubt, Easy Peasy. My flat is only 4 metro stops from the Gare du Nord where I caught the Eurostar. For once, my seat was facing the right way, aka the way the train was going. The 2 1/2 hours on the train flew by - I read, I ate, I dozed. I got to London at noon (1:00 p.m. French time). Unlike the metro, you don’t need tube cards to take the tube in London. You swipe your credit card and the doors open. I took the tube from San Pancras to Leicester Square, which is a 4 minute walk to the National Gallery, past the David Garrick theater and St. Martin in the Fields. If you are an art historian and you are in London for a day, your first stop, obviously, is the National Gallery. A collection that includes the best work by the best artists. In a space designed to be a museum and not a palace (Louvre) or an office (Uffizi). I was there to see a tiny (two room) exhibition on Joseph Wright of Derby (pronounced Darby) which was excellent and about which I will tell you soon. I stopped by to say hello to Ginevra’s favorite Venus, the Rokeby Venus and to walk along a corridor of Mantegnas. I also snuck into an exhibition on the horse painter, George Stubbs (snuck because it was Members Only preview day). The ticket taker saw my press card and let me in. (Figs 1-4)
Figure 1. St Martin in the Fiends, it was a beautiful day in London
Figure 1. St Martin in the Fiends, it was a beautiful day in London
Figure 3. The Rokeby Venus, Diego Velázquez, 1647-1651
Figure 4. Whistlejacket, George Stubbs, 1762
I could have stayed forever but alas art is long and life is short (ars longa, vita brevis) and M-A at the V & A beckoned. I walked back to Leicester Square, got back into the tube and back onto the Piccadilly Line. A few stops later, I was in South Kensington. One of the several exits takes you via tunnel directly into the Victoria & Albert Museum.
My timed entry for the exhibition was 4:00. The museum closed at 5:45. The galleries begin closing 30 minutes before the museum does. My train to Paris left at 7:00. I spent the next two months worried that I would have to rush through the exhibition. I hate rushing through anything, especially museum exhibitions. It reminded me (not in a good way) of visiting the Vatican Museum with my husband the first time we traveled to Europe together. I guess you could say that we were not well matched. He never got anywhere early. He never even got anywhere on time. We got to the Museum so late that we walked through it with the guard who was switching off the lights for the day. Grrr.
Obviously I would have preferred an earlier entry, but 4:00 p.m. was the earliest I could get, given that I booked only two months in advance! The thought that I would have to rush through an exhibition, especially one on Marie-Antoinette, haunted me. I wrote to the museum and asked if I could get into the exhibition earlier given that I was going to be in London for the day and that I was an art historian and that I had a press card and that I hadn’t asked for a free press ticket. I was told that nothing could be done, the exhibition was sold out. If I chose to arrive early, an earlier entry would be at the discretion of the person scanning tickets. A couple days before my day in London, I received an ominous email from the V & A reminding me that the exhibition was sold out and that I might have to wait to get into the exhibition, even if I arrived at the right time.
I arrived at the V & A at 3:00 p.m. After a few minutes in the gift shop, deciding what I might buy after the exhibition, I was ready to try my luck. I presented myself at the entrance to the exhibition. The ticket checker scanned my ticket. And miracle of miracles, she didn’t tell me that I was an hour early. She just told me, and I’m quoting here, to ‘enjoy the exhibition.’ So, I did. Leisurely yes, calmly not so much, given the subject matter. Two hours later, I returned to the gift shop and bought a catalogue - it weighed a ton but it was on sale, because the exhibition ends on March 22. If you’re in London, don’t think about seeing this show, unless you’re a member. Because it’s sold out! (F 5-7)
Figure 5. Robe a l’anglaise, 1780s. We see it from the back, the mirror allows us to see the front
Figure 6. In front of a mirror (that’s me taking the photo) we have a lesson about kinds of dresses, a la française, a l’anglaise and a la polonaise
Figure 7. A book of hairstyles, this of a French naval victory in the American Revolutionary War
Figure 8. Marie-Antoinette Métamorphoses d’une image, Conciergerie, Paris
One of the first exhibitions I reviewed when I started writing about temporary exhibitions in Paris, was about the Marie Antoinette exhibition at the Conciergerie. (Fig 8) The location was right, it’s where she spent the last months of her life, imprisoned, awaiting her trial and then her beheading. The V & A exhibition, about which I will tell you very soon, was wonderful. And as we all (well me and Franny anyhow) await the exhibition that will mark the 20th anniversary of Sofia Coppola’s fabulous film, Marie Antoinette (which figured prominently in both the Conciergerie and the V & A exhibitions) and which will be held at Versailles, I offer you my review from that 2019 exhibition. Gros bisous, Dr. B.
Click here to read: Marie Antoinette at La Conciergerie