Beschreibung:

VERSAILLES, PETIT TRIANON, Chateau and Garden]. MIQUE, Richard (1728-1794), architect [and CHÂTELET, Claude-Louis (1753-1794), artist ]. Recueil des plans du Petit Trianon. Par le S r . Mique chevalier de l'ordre de S t .-Michel, premier architecte honoraire, Intendant général des Btiments du Roy et de la Reine . N.p., [Paris?], 1781. Broadsheets (ca. 470 x 349mm). 20 leaves. Titleleaf and endleaves with watermark "D & G BLAUW," others "J HONIG & ZONEN," each sheet mounted on a guard, comprising manuscript title page (text as above), within ink border; large folding plan (two sheets) of the entire chateau and its surrounding gardens in ink and watercolors; six architectural plans (some with two subjects, one with a hinged overslip), in ink with gray, rose-pink and pale blue washes; 7 architectural drawings (some with two subjects) of façades and cross-sections of the chateau, theater, temple and other buildings, in ink and washes (two in full color); one ink and watercolor rendering of the painted ceiling of the theater, by Mique; five full-page perspective views of the chateau, Belvédère, Temple of Love and grotto, each within black ink border and with rose-pink outer margins, by Châtelet. BINDING: Contemporary French crimson levant morocco, covers with triple gilt-ruled outer borders, spine gilt-tooled in seven compartments, six with a central pomegranate tool and small flower and leaf tools, one compartment with citron morocco label gilt-lettered "PLANS DU PETIT TRIANON," gilt inner dentelles, paste-downs and endpages of sky-blue silk. (Very minor traces of rubbing at spine extremities and corners). Red cloth protective clamshell case. IN VERY FINE ORIGINAL CONDITION INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY. THE QUEEN'S CHATEAU AND GARDENS AT THE PETIT TRIANON: A SUMPTUOUS ALBUM OF ORIGINAL DRAWINGS AND PLANS COMMISSIONED BY MARIE-ANTOINETTE IN 1781 Provenance : Commissioned by Queen Marie-Antoinette (1755-1793), probably presented in 1781 to her brother Joseph II (1741-1790), Holy Roman Emperor, who visited Versailles in August 1781; Count Franz Harrach of Vienna, etched bookplate; Raphaël Esmerian, monogram bookplate (sale, Paris, Palais Galliera, 6 June 1973, lot 65, illustrated); Anonymous owner (sale, Sotheby's, New York, 1 June 1995, lot 303). The Petit Trianon, Louis XV's small pavilion surrounded by greenhouses and a botanical garden, had been presented to the young Marie-Antoinette, the daughter of Maria Theresa and Franz I of Austria, after her marriage to Louis XVI in May 1774. The mansion house, originally created by A.J. Gabriel in 1750 for Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour, lay only a short distance from Versailles itself, but nevertheless afforded the shy young Queen a degree of privacy unobtainable at the bustling main palace and from about 1779 it became Marie-Antoinette's favorite residence and refuge, into which only the closest members of her coterie were admitted. Jealous courtiers excluded from her private gatherings spread ugly rumors about goings-on there and maliciously referred to it as "Petit Vienne" (little Vienna). The Queen soon embarked on a radical redesign of the Petit Trianon's gardens, employing the eminent painter Hubert Robert (1733-1808, student of Fragonard, Boucher and Piranesi), in the role of Dessinateur des Jardins du Roi, and the Comte de Caraman (an amateur landscape architect), under the overall supervision of the architect Richard Mique At the request of the Queen, who had a passionate interest in the theater, Mique designed a splendid, highly decorated theater, on an intimate scale, the subject of seven plans or drawings in the present album. In a theatrical presentation there, in September 1780, the Queen herself played the part of Colette in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's perennially popular Devin du Village . The jeu de Bague , subject of one of Châtelet's watercolors in this album, was a merry-go-round in the Chinese style, first constructed in 1776, consisting of revolving seats beneath