Marie Antoinette and the Last Garden of Versailles by Christain Duvernois, Francois Halard (Photographer)

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Synopsis

Marie-Antoinette has been idolized as the height of eighteenth-century French style and vilified as the spark that ignited the French Revolution. This book departs from such traditional interpretations of the infamous queen’s reign and chooses to reflect on the humanistic aspects of her private realm. To escape the formalities and royal obligations of Louis XVI’s court, Marie-Antoinette created a private realm of pleasure for herself at the Petit Trianon and Hameau, where she planted the first Anglo-Chinese garden; created a trysting grotto; a working farm; and revolutionized architecture and gardening trends for the century to come. Marie-Antoinette’s entire private domain and its story are told in beautiful photographic detail by François Halard for the first time since its recent restoration and accompanied by well-researched texts by garden expert Christian Duvernois.

Biography

Christian Duvernois is a member of the Friends of Versailles and has unprecedented access to the Versailles archives. He is a landscape designer based in New York. François Halard is a frequent photographer for American and French Vogue, World of Interiors, and House & Garden and the photographer of several books, including La Maison de Verre.