The Petit Trianon (; French for 'small Trianon') is a Neoclassical style château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built between 1762 and 1768 during the reign of King Louis XV. The Petit Trianon was constructed within the gardens of a larger royal retreat known as the Grand Trianon.
Design and construction The Petit Trianon was built on the site of a botanical garden developed about a decade earlier by Louis XV, within the grounds of the Grand Trianon, Louis XIV's retreat. It was designed by Ange-Jacques Gabriel by order of Louis XV for his mistress, Madame de Pompadour, and was constructed between 1762 and 1768. Madame de Pompadour died four years before its completion, and the Petit Trianon was subsequently occupied by her successor, Madame du Barry. Upon his accession to the throne in 1774, the 20-year-old Louis XVI gave the château and its surrounding park to his 19-year-old wife, Marie Antoinette, for her exclusive use.
The Petit Trianon is an example of the transition from the Rococo style of the earlier part of the 18th century to the Neoclassical style of the 1760s and onward. It attracts interest in its four façades, each designed according to that part of the estate it would face. The Corinthian order predominates, with two freestanding and two engaged columns on the side of the formal French garden, and pilasters facing both the courtyard and the area once occupied by Louis XV's greenhouses. Overlooking the former botanical garden of the King, the remaining façade was left bare.
Marie Antoinette would visit the Petit Trianon to escape the formality of court life and to rest from her royal responsibilities. Since it was her private property, no one was permitted to enter the property without the Queen's permission. Only the Queen's inner circle (including the princesse de Lamballe and the duchesse de Polignac) were invited, which alienated the court nobility. In the spring of 1779, Marie Antoinette retired to the Petit Trianon to recover from illness after the birth of her daughter Marie-Thérèse. Her entire household came with her, as well as four male friends to attend her: the duc de Coigny, the duc de Guînes, the comte d'Esterházy, and the baron de Besenval. This innocent activity was in violation of court etiquette and caused gossip to circulate. This was just one of the 'malicious insinuations against her which became so common later on.'
The building was designed to require as little interaction between guests and servants as possible. To that end, the table in the salle à manger (dining room) was conceived to be mobile, mechanically lowered and raised through the floorboards so that the servants below could set it while remaining unseen. These tables were never built as Louis XV found them too expensive, but the delineation for the mechanical apparatus can still be seen from the foundation.
In the attic, a suite was constructed for Louis XV by Ange-Jacques Gabriel, consisting of antechamber, bedroom, and a private chamber. A staircase led from his private chamber down to the mezzanine where Madame du Barry resided. In Marie Antoinette's time, the attic apartment remained reserved for her husband, Louis XVI. The private staircase of Louis XV was removed, allowing a library to be constructed by Richard Mique. The mezzanine, which is above the Queen's apartment, was reserved for Marie Antoinette's lady-in-waiting and first lady-in-waiting.
Within the Queen's apartment, the décor of her boudoir features mirrored panels that, by the turning of a crank, can be raised or lowered to obscure the windows and reflect the candlelight. Her bedroom was provided with furniture from Georges Jacob and Jean Henri Riesener. Jacob designed a set of furniture for the room known as the mobilier aux épis, elaborately carved with flowers, which Marie Antoinette was greatly fond of, and garlands. It was upholstered in embroidered Lyon silk. The wallpaper was painted by Jean-Baptiste Pillement.
French Revolution and Republic On 5 October 1789, Marie Antoinette was sitting in the grotto, located in the gardens, alone, as most of her friends had left France following the storming of the Bastille. Suddenly, a page appeared, bringing news of the imminent arrival of an armed mob from Paris. With the forced departure of the royal family the next day, the Petit Trianon was almost abandoned, except for the gardeners and other staff who continued to live there. Renovations that had been underway were interrupted, leaving large sums owed to builders. The former Queen's gardener, Antoine Richard, was appointed as curator of the gardens and plant nursery in 1792 by the Minister of the Interior. After the overthrow of the monarchy in September 1792, all of the furniture, artworks, and other priceless objects of the Petit Trianon, carefully curated over the years, were removed, sold, and scattered under a decree of the National Convention dated 10 June 1793. The auction began on Sunday, 25 August 1793, and continued until 11 August 1794. Silverware, lead, and brass fixtures were requisitioned for use in the arsenals. The sculptor Amable Boichard was appointed in April 1794 to remove the 'emblems of royalty and feudalism' from the property.
Under the Republic, the Petit Trianon underwent a number of changes. Declared national property, the land was divided into ten lots, the gardens narrowly saved from being destroyed. The city of Versailles proposed that a botanical garden be established, but this plan was never adopted. In 1796, the land was leased to a tavern. By 1801, the use of the grounds for dances and festivals led to neglect and vandalism. The buildings of the hamlet were reported to be dilapidated. Some improvements in the layout of the gardens were subsequently made, and a school located in part of the complex.
Empire After years of neglect, Napoleon Bonaparte gave the building to his sister Pauline and later his second wife Marie Louise. Extensive refurbishing of roofs, piping, floors, and chimneys was carried out. The main rooms were repainted, and mirrors were installed to replace those sold or vandalised. Finally, paintings were hung and a bridge de la Réunion constructed to link open areas across a hollow road.
Château du Petit Trianon The château du Petit Trianon is a building located on the grounds of Marie Antoinette's estate in the parc de Versailles, in the French department of Yvelines in the Île-de-France region.
Built by King Louis XV's architect, Ange-Jacques Gabriel, between 1762 and 1768, it is considered a masterpiece of Neoclassicism, combining the most modern taste with integration into the surrounding natural environment.
Built for Madame de Pompadour, who died before it was completed, it was inaugurated by Madame du Barry in 1768, almost twenty years after the first gardens were laid out in the King's new garden. Although it was the most imposing building on the Petit Trianon estate, it was not the first, but rather the continuation of a project spanning four decades. On his accession to the throne, Louis XVI gave it to his young wife Marie Antoinette, who gave it her stamp; forever associating the building with her.
With a square floor plan measuring twenty-three metres on each side, the building owes its distinctiveness to its four façades comprising five high windows punctuated by Corinthian columns or pilasters. Due to the sloping ground, the ground floor of the château is only accessible from the south and east sides; this floor is reserved for service areas. The 'noble' floor, entered via a grand staircase in a vestibule designed as an inner courtyard, contains the reception rooms and the Queen's rooms. A mezzanine with three rooms houses Marie Antoinette's library. On the attic floor, several apartments that once belonged to Louis XV and his entourage now evoke the 'ladies of Trianon', aka the other women who once used it.
The decoration, entrusted by the architect Ange-Jacques Gabriel to Honoré Guibert, is entirely based on nature and a taste for antiquity. A true architectural extension of the neighbouring gardens, the château is adorned with sculptures of flowers and fruit, the paintings are allegories of the seasons or flowers, and the furniture is embellished with rural motifs.
A symbol of the new monarchy, which aspired for more intimacy and tranquillity than the permanent representation imposed by Louis XIV, the Petit Trianon also reflected the fragility of the system condemned by the Revolution of 1789. Nevertheless, the 'women's palace' remained spared by the years, benefiting in the 19th century from the infatuation of Marie Louise, Hélène de Mecklembourg-Schwerin, and Eugénie de Montijo. The restoration campaigns carried out at the beginning of the 21st century have restored most of the grounds to the look as they had on the day Marie Antoinette left it for the last time.
Together with the château de Versailles and its outbuildings, it was listed as a historic monument in 1862 and by decree of 31 October 1906; and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. It is now open to the public as part of the musée national des châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, within the Domaine de Marie-Antoinette.
Construction
In 1749, King Louis XV decided to regain possession of Trianon, which he had 'loved so much' as a child, but from which the pain he had felt in this refuge on the occasion of several bereavements had distanced him. Encouraged by his favourite, Madame de Pompadour, he had several buildings constructed on new plots of land to the north-east of the marble château, reviving the idea of a small country fantasy that had once prevailed at his grandfather's porcelain Trianon. A ménagerie was devoted to farm and barnyard animals, and two small pavilions were built within a new formal garden.
This garden space, the King's new garden, which allowed the King to develop his taste for botany and horticulture, was soon no longer sufficient. In 1758 thought began to be given to the construction of a small country château to close off the perspective of the French parterres. The first sketches were inspired by the prince de Croÿ's brand-new Château de l'Hermitage, designed according to a centred plan.
The project was delayed by the Seven Years' War, but these events allowed more time for reflection and fixed the hesitations of the first plans. The 1761 plan included only three windows per façade. Only the façade overlooking the botanical gardens has four transoms without a projection, but it is poorly adapted to the levelling. A circular pediment tops each central crossing, the whole being richly decorated, even overloaded. The proportions are poorly balanced and the staircases are too modest. It was not convincing and failed to overcome the indecision to which the King was often subjected.
The idea, later described as 'brilliant', was to increase the number of crossbeams per façade to five, giving the building more majesty than the first drafts and satisfying the demands of the site. The principle of four pilasters or columns, depending on the cardinal orientation, which regularly punctuate the high windows, was retained. In the end, stereotomy was preferred, characterised by purely geometric ornamental decoration. The building had a square plan and its dimensions, twelve toises per sideé,Twelve toises correspond to approximately 23 m. were determined by the width of the French garden. This choice of colossal order gave the building, despite its modest dimensions, a monumental character while preserving the harmony of its proportions.