Small Trianon
The Petit Trianon is a castle built in the park of the Château of Versailles under Louis XV, near the old village of Trianon (which in the franque language means planted place of poplars tremble or Aspen plantation) and of the Grand Trianon.
It is under the impulse of its favorite, Madam de Pompadour, that King Louis XV made order the construction of new Trianon. The building site, entrusted to Jacques Angel Gabriel, lasted 6 years, of 1762 to 1768. The place chosen for this new construction was the old botanical garden of the King created by Claude Richard. But Madam de Pompadour, that for whom was intended the castle, died on April 15th, 1764, not attending the completion of her work. It is with its favorite news, Madam of Barry, that Louis XV inaugurated Small Trianon.
Louis XV dies in 1774 and the Countess of Barry must leave Trianon. As of its advent Louis XVI offers the castle to his wife Marie-Antoinette by this formula: " You like the flowers, Madam, I have a bouquet to offer to you. It is Trianon." Marie-Antoinette undertook many work in the castle and the field. Following the Revolution the castle falls into the lapse of memory. It is first once restored under the Monarchy of July by the Queen Marie-Louise, then second once under the Second Empire by the Empress Eugenie.
Inspired by the architecture palladienne and perhaps by drawings of Jean-François Chalgrin, external rises, on the basis of square plan, hide a subtle installation of the interior levels. Pretense open on the gardens, the stage of the living rooms is in fact located above a ground floor which opens on a small main courtyard, side of Versailles. The frontage on this court is decorated pilasters, the opposite frontage of columns and the side walls of semi-columns. The examination of the external decoration symbolizes the reconsidered classicism of Gabriel.
Places
The Castle
Ordered in 1762 in Gabriel, the castle will be completed only in 1768, that is to say 4 years after the death of Madam de Pompadour. It will thus be allotted to Madam of Barry until the death of Louis XV. The neo-classic style of the building is in total rupture with the style rubble of the French House, built by the same architect in 1750. The building of square plan, overcome by a balustrade, rises on three stage. The accessible ground floor only since the southern parts and is, because of uneven ground, shelters the commun runs. On the first floor the parts of reception and the apartment of the Queen are. At the Attic is located the apartment of the King and those of the guests. All the frontages of the building are different, that of the west towards the French garden is the principal frontage. By his perron one reaches directly on the noble floor.
The central door of the frontage opens on the main staircase of the castle. That is decorated of a splendid slope in
Wrought iron. It presents an alternation of medallions: flowers of lily and the figure of Marie-Antoinette who replaced that of Pompadour. Located in withdrawal under the flights of stairs, a door gives access to the covered plate warmer of a remarkable surbased vault.
By the main staircase one reaches directly the anteroom of the part of reception. In a very sober decoration are exposed the busts of Louis XVI and
Joseph II of Austria, as well as the table of Vigée-Lebrun:
Marie-Antoinette with the pink . This anteroom opens on the big room to eat with her splendid decoration of fruit woodworks carved, a chimney out of blue marble turquin and the 4 large tables on natural topics (the harvest, fishing, hunting and grape harvest). In the center of the parquet floor traces of a trap door, vestige of the old project of table " volante" who would have allowed to draw up the tables in the kitchens and to make them go up in the dining room. Thus the intimacy of the guests would have been preserved servants. The project, too expensive, was abandonné.
Two parts are at side: the Small room to be eaten transformed into Room of Billiards and the Living room of Company or Living room of Music. This part was the principal part where Marie-Antoinette found herself in company of her " cour" of Trianon. The figure of Louis XV, intertwined flowers, shows that the places are dedicated to the nature.
One passes then in the Apartment of the Queen. The windows of the room give on the Temple of the Love. The bed in place is not that used by the Queen, but furniture is that which it had ordered from
Jacob, which created for the occasion a furniture with natural decoration, known as
with the ears .
In the Boudoir, Re-decorated in 1787 by the Rousseaux brothers, an astute system of moving ices, produced by Mercklein and Courbin, made it possible the Queen to rest with the shelter of the external glances. The last part of its apartment is the toilets.
The stage of attic sheltered initially the apartment of Louis XV, this one being connected to the remainder of the castle by a staircase which was located at the site of the boudoir of Marie-Antoinette. The apartment of Louis XV was replaced by the Queen by an apartment dedicated to her husband and connected on the first floor by a modest staircase. This one serves a series of three parts. An anteroom; the Room of Louis XVI - restored in 1985, it is tended of red Damas crimson and avoided of a bed the " polonaise" - and a study giving on the view-point. The remainder of this stage is occupied by apartments of the guests.
The French Garden
Since 1749, Louis XV wishes to create a new place of pleasure in Trianon. From this point of view, it makes build a " news ménagerie" , which shelters animals of farmyard; a dairy for the goats and makes restore the refrigerator of Louis XIV.
To decorate the entourage of the menagerie, Gabriel undertakes, about 1750, the creation of a small garden to French in the south of this one. The two prospects (East-West and North-South) are decorated with 4 basins decorated with statues with children representing the four seasons. It also makes build two new buildings: the French House, for the fresh plays and collations, and Living room, whose single part was used as dining room of summer. This last was demolished by Napoleon I and was rebuilt in 1984.
Completed in 1750, the French House is composed of an octagonal central living room and four cabinets (a kitchen, a plate warmer, a boudoir and a wardrobe). The plank of the central living room decorated with animals of farmyard points out the close menagerie.
It was the last realization of Gabriel for Louis XV in Trianon. It was completed in 1773, that is to say one year before the death of the King. It is located at the South of the French garden between the buildings of the commun runs and the court of Small Trianon. It is surmounted by a pinnacle decorated with a clock and cross of the redeemer. The interior decoration of neo-classic style is of an extreme sobriety. The fabric of the furnace bridge, from the painter
Joseph-Marie Vien, is detached on the white woodworks. The royal platform supported by 4 doric columns is directly accessible since the perron.
Already under Louis XV the theater occupied a dominating place in the entertainments of Trianon. Marie-Antoinette, when it receives the field, must be satisfied for her spectacles with provisional scenes assembled initially in the gallery with Large Trianon then in the orangery with Small Trianon. In 1778, Marie-Antoinette charges
Richard Mique with him built a theater. After two years of work, the room was inaugurated on June 1st, 1780. A gallery in trellis-work, covered with fabrics to protect the passers by when the sun was too burning, connects Small Trianon and the Theater. The external decoration east impresses austerity. Only the pediment, representing the " Genius of Apollon" , and the two ionic columns scatter a little the frontage. The austerity of the hall contrasts with the decoration of the room. Of relatively reduced size its blue decoration and gold are factitious. The stuccos, the woodworks and the curtains are out of paperboard paste, paints and gilded; the marble are false marble drawn and the silk trade is carried out with the economy. With the ceiling, a copy, installed in 1968, replaces the fabric of Lagrenée " Apollo surrounded of the Graces and Muses".
The English Garden
Between 1776 and 1783, Caraman then
Richard Mique draws a garden with English, in which they disperse factories. They thus install a lake, a small mountain, rocks and a papered cave of false greenery for the rest of Marie-Antoinette.
This small house of octagonal form, surmounted of a dome hidden by a balustrade, was set up by Mique about 1780 on a hillock beside the lake. It belongs to the series of the factories built by the architect. It opens by 4 doors which one reaches by 4 staircases kept by pairs of sphinges. The pediments surmounting the doors, decorated attributes of hunting and gardening, alternate with the low-relief overhanging the windows representing the 4 seasons. Inside, the decoration paints makes think of a house of trellis-work. The ground when with him is paved marble, decorated with painted arabesques.
Finished in 1778, this factory of traditional style was set up on a small island in the east of the English garden. The tholos, placed on an elevated platform of 7 steps, includes/understands 12 Corinthian columns which support a dome decorated with boxes. In the center the statue of Bouchardon, " love cutting an arc in the bludgeon of Hercule".
To satisfy her taste of rustic, Marie-Antoinette wished to make build, as for the Prince of Condé with
Chantilly in 1775, a small hamlet. In 1783, Mique conceives the plan of a small village idyllique.
Around an artificial pond, it will make set up 11 decorated thatched cottages of kitchen gardens, orchards and small closed gardens as well as a headlight and a mill. Most important of these house is the House of the Queen in the center of the hamlet.
Patronage
Several patrons contributed to the restoration of Small Trianon:
Swatch Group will renovate it with height of five million Euros and will make the center of its promotional events of it. The clock and watch maker Bréguet also takes part in the restoration of the building.