Art I Love

I've been meaning to blog about this sculpture for a long time but I always forget. 

This sculpture (housed in a museum somewhere in France) marks the meetings and positive relationship between Louis XVI's France and the new American Revolutionaries. 

What makes this piece significant is not it's style or technicalities but instead the moment it captures. When Benjamin Franklin went to France he was greeted warmly by an enthusiastic French population. Franklin was viewed as modern and smart. Louis XVI was enamored with Franklin because Louis XVI was very interested in sciences and all things new in that vein. 

Louis XVI gets a bad rap in the history books, but the truth is, he was not a dumb man---quite the opposite. Louis XVI was a man who was not next in line for the throne, but due to the death of his father and older brother the throne was literally thrown into his lap. Louis was an intelligent boy who excelled at the sciences and languages. He was very tall and horribly near-sighted. He gets his reputation for being dumb because due to court rules he wasn't allowed to wear his glasses during the day at Versailles. Can you imagine? From sun up to sun down someone who desperately needs glasses is not allowed to wear them. That just seems unfair. 

However, my most favorite thing about this sculpture which puts it in the category of one of my favorite pieces of art, is the way the two men are juxtaposed. Louis is dressed regally and traditionally, whereas Franklin wears the modern clothes of the new America. It is this contrasting of men, styles, and thus countries that I love the most. 

- Grace

Neiman Marcus Hits Christmas Gold!

Th Neiman Marcus Christmas Book is at it again, peddling completely odd and expensive gift ideas on us consumers. This year their Christmas Book is advertising the Beau Coop. What's a Beau Coop you ask? Well obviously (duh!) it's a Petit Trianon-inspired chicken coop for your chickens, 'cause you know I've been looking for a stylish home for my chickens forever! 

Priced at $100,000 this coop is perfect for the very wealthy person who wants to have a Versailles-inspired coop in their backyard to illustrate that they're just like Joe farmer 60 miles away. 

Thoughts? 

Will this be on your Christmas list?

- Grace

Roll Top Desk: An Evolution

I took a class last fall titled Royal Furnishings of Versailles and to this date it has been my very favorite grad school course. My teacher was a French woman who had a very high position within Versailles so she had amazing information as well as photos you might not otherwise see. For example, a lot of furniture within Versailles has moving parts, meaning you turn a crank, and a mirror pops out of what looked like a flat table. My teacher forbade (!) us to use any of her images so the following image is from another source.

This is a desk Louis XV commissioned. Yes, the king who ushered in Rococo which is actually supposed to be called Rocaille. Anyway, back to the desk: this desk was thought to have been started by a craftsman named Oeben who received the commission in 1760. Oeben died in 1763 and his widow, in need of money, married another craftsman named Riesener. Riesener finished the desk and stamped it Riesener. It's technically Transition style, not Rocaille.

The reason I am putting this desk up is because back then the roll-top was a new idea and a way for the owner to keep his papers out on the desk but lock it up so it was still secure. Cool, right? When the roll-top was first invented the technology behind making it was new and revolutionary.

Fast forward to today—I came across this desk by Nika Zupanc and instantly thought of Oeben/Riesener.

Although the owner can't leave their papers sprawled across the desk top, you can still stuff (organized or not) all of your papers in the expanding file folder and then crank it down to be hidden within the top of the desk. Cool, right?

As they say, life always repeats itself. I guess the same can be said about design.

-Grace