Marie Antoinette

 

Marie Antoinette was the Queen of France and wife to Louis XVI. She was a frivolous and selfish individual that escaped her mundane life at the Versailles court by building expensive havens like 'The Petite Triannon', a mile from Versailles, where she would engage in gambling and drinking with her friends. It was even believed she had her secret love affair with Count Axel Fersen in the Triannon. With her extravagence came the regular people's poverty. Taxes were too high and there was a shortage of food and everyone looked to Marie Antoinette, or 'The Austrian Bitch' as to blame for their suffering. Like her husband, she was imprisoned and beheaded in 1793.

Louis XVI

 

Louis XVI was the fifth monarch of the Bourbon dynasty. He was a curious, enigmatic man and quite unlike his predecessors. From his childhood, he lacked in self-esteem and was percieved to be quite a mild person. Perhaps these personal traits were to blame for the indecision in his reign which led to famine in France and eventually a revolution. After years of imprisonment in a mediavel fortress called the Temple, Louis XVI was beheaded in 1793.

 

I would like to use key elements of Louis' reign and encorporate them into a drawing(or maybe a series of drawings), establishing a kind of simple narrative.

Versailles

This summer I spent a week in Paris and I thought it would be the perfect opputunity to visit Versailles, the old palace of the French monarchy. French history has always been one of my favourite parts of history so I thought this would be a good starting point for me. Here are some photos I took whilst walking round Versailles: