What Ever Happened to the U.S. Congress’s Portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette? Retracing the Events that Led to the Conflagration of the Capitol and the Loss of the Pictures on 24-25 August 1814 is a scholarly monograph published by the American Philosophical Society Press. It revisits one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American political culture. Conceived by Benjamin Franklin during a diplomatic mission, requested by the American delegates at the height of the War of Independence, and granted by the French king after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, these official full-length images of the French monarchs arrayed in ceremonial magnificence were recently identified as atelier copies after Antoine-François Callet’s Louis XVI and Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s Marie-Antoinette (both 1783) and traced through Congress’s successive assembly rooms at New York City (1785), Philadelphia (1790), and Washington (1800). The fate of the royal portraits has been difficult to determine due to the incomplete documentary record and conflicting eyewitness accounts. Larkin initially takes a telescopic approach to the problem, moving from British and French production of state portraits to assert political claims in North America and despoliation of Western European countries of their art treasures, to show British and American interests at stake in the practice of looting and incendiary warfare waged across the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay prior to the destruction of the public buildings in Washington, D.C. He then pursues a microscopic approach, analyzing period documents, letters, images, and plans to test the viability of two theories—that the royal portraits were burned by British troops during their occupation of the capital or looted by American scavengers during the chaotic aftermath. While physical evidence of the portrait artifacts remains elusive, this study of the images as objects of desire, danger, and loss breaks new ground for scholars desirous of constituting an art and material history for the War of 1812.
Unknown, British Troops Burn Washington, D.C., from Paul Rapin de Thoyras, History of England from the Earliest Periods, vol. 1 (London: J & J Cundee, 1816).
Table of Contents
Introduction
Royal Portraits in North America and the West Indies
Origins of the War of 1812
Theft and Conflagration in the North American Theater of Military Operations
American-British Warfare Across the Great Lakes
British Raids in the Chesapeake
To Attack, to Defend Washington, D.C.
Evacuation and Invasion of the Capitol
What the Ambassador Heard, What the Justice of the Peace Saw
Whether to Seek, to Replace, or to Forget
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Todd Larkin during the research of What Ever Happened to the U.S. Congress’s Portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette?, 2016. Photo by Kelly Gorham.
January 1, 2021
by tlarkin Comments Off on In Search of Marie-Antoinette Book
In Search of Marie-Antoinette in the 1930s: Stefan Zweig, Irving Thalberg, and Norma Shearer is a scholarly monograph published by Palgrave Macmillan that follows Austrian biographer Stefan Zweig, American producer Irving Thalberg, and Canadian-American actress Norma Shearer as they attempt to uncover personal aspects of Marie-Antoinette’s life at the French court in the late eighteenth century and to dramatize them in biography, cinema, and performance for public consumption during the 1930s. The first chapter establishes the core subject as an inquiry into the respective contributions of Zweig, Thalberg, and Shearer in formulating an “objective” or “authentic” image of “Marie-Antoinette.” The three chapters that follow examine in some detail how Zweig pursued research and drafted the psychological biography at his Salzburg home, Thalberg acquired film rights to the best-selling book and fought the censors to preserve the more sensational aspects of the screenplay at the Culver City studio, and Shearer worked closely with a new producer to give the script a strong romantic angle and to perform the character of the queen on the sound stage. The professionals’ research standards and strategic objectives are weighed in the formulation of a new myth at once sensitive to the historical record and suited to the leisure market. The author’s painstaking research makes it clear that all three protagonists strove for historical precision in their characterizations of the eighteenth-century queen and her court, though with different degrees of self-awareness as shapers of a potent twentieth-century myth of “Marie-Antoinette.”
Stefan Zweig, author of the best-selling biography Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman (1932), and Claudine West, contributor to the adapted screenplay Marie Antoinette (1934-1936) (Stefan Zweig Center, Salzburg and Margaret Herrick Library, Los Angeles).
Table of Contents
Introduction: In Search of Marie-Antoinette: The Inscrutable Life Worth Scrutinizing
Scholarship to Date
The Myth of “Marie-Antoinette”
“Objectivity” in the Writing of History, “Authenticity” in the Production of Film
Zweig, Thalberg and Shearer in Documents and Biographies
Structure and Method of the Argument
Part I: Stefan Zweig’s Clinical Biography, 1930-1932
Western European Approaches to Illustrated Biography in the 1920s
Zweig’s Approach to Psychological Biography
Zweig’s Approach to the French Revolution
Merging Dominant Interpretations of Marie-Antoinette
Structure of the Argument
Marie-Antoinette’s Psychological Transformation: Cause, Manifestations, and Cure
Marie-Antoinette’s Spiritual Transformation: Awakening, Resistance and Acceptance
Writing Historical Biography as an “Interested” Undertaking
Zweig on Film Adaptations of Historical Biographies
Part II:Irving Thalberg’s Film Production, 1934-1936
European and American Approaches to Historical Film in the 1920s
Thalberg’s Approach to Biographical Film
Thalberg’s Introduction to the Zweig Property
Sorting Rival Interpretations of Marie-Antoinette
In Conference: Establishing Character Motivations, Scenarios, and Continuity
The Two Earliest “Temporary Complete Screenplays”
Indicating Louis’ Phimosis, or How Ineffectual Lovemaking Leads to lackluster Leadership
Indicating the Revolutionaries, or How to Generate Sympathy for Monarchs in Spite of Their Ineffectualness
Producing Biographical Film as an “interested” Undertaking
Thalberg on Playing a Historical Character
Part III: Norma Shearer’s Dramatic Performance, 1937-1938
Euro-American Approaches to Historical Roles in the 1930s
Shearer’s Approach to Historical Characterizations
Shearer’s Recommitment to the Marie-Antoinette Role
The “Final Okayed Screenplay”
Inter-Dependence of Screenplay, Cast, Costumes, and Sets
Before and Behind the Cameras: Shearer’s Acting Technique and Production Oversight
The Two Faces of Marie-Antoinette, or How to Sell Sin and Atonement
To make Marie-Antoinette Live Again: The Art of Rendering Clear and Mixed Passions
Acting a Historical Part as an “Interested” Undertaking
Shearer on Public Response to Her Performance
Conclusion
Summary
“Marie-Antoinette” in Myth
“Objectivity” in Biography, “Authenticity” in Film
Time Travel Today
Index
Design by Emma Hardy
Todd Larkin during the writing of In Search of Marie-Antoinette, August 2016
Appreciations:
“This is an important book for our library!”
– Eva Alteneder, Stefan Zweig Center Salzburg
“This gets my award for best reception history book of the year! It is simply fabulous!” and “It’s a great piece of research underpinned by a strong idea. It reads as an archaeology of film. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned loads.”
– Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, University of Cardiff
“T. Lawrence Larkin’s In Search of Marie-Antoinette in the 1930s is a game changer. He builds upon his considerable expertise in art history—the representation of the dubious queen in oil painting—as a framework for exploring a particular classical Hollywood biopic, MGM’s Marie-Antoinette (1938). Not only does the book give reason to attend more carefully to the bio-pic in late 1930s Hollywood, it also provides a sterling guide for how to do production studies at its most sophisticated level. Larkin’s attention to literary studies (the author Stefan Zweig), film studies (the producer Irving Thalberg), and performance studies (the actress Norma Shearer) provides a beacon for what the humanities should look like in the twenty-first century, interdisciplinary and brazenly expansive in its scope. The age of academic disciplinary boundaries is coming to an end, and Larkin’s book hammers a significant nail into its coffin.”
– Walter Metz, Southern Illinois University
“Like everything Professor Larkin has written about Marie-Antoinette and her image (how she related to her own image, how she contributed to shaping it, or—like here—how the queen’s image and character have been explored on screen and in literature), this book is excellent reading and very thoroughly researched. I warmly recommend it to those with an interest in the fascinating dialogue historical figures keep having with movie makers and intellectuals turned biographers….Many useless and repetitive books are written about Marie-Antoinette. This original way of exploring how she has fascinated so many—and keeps doing so—will appeal to many. A great book!”
– Jean François Carric, Metamark UK Limited
Norma Shearer as Marie-Antoinette, MGM publicity postcard, ca. 1938.
December 31, 2020
by tlarkin Comments Off on Politics & Portraits Anthology
Politics & Portraits in the United States & France during the Age of Revolution is an anthology of essays prepared by portrait scholars from the United States, Canada, France, and Germany and published by the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press to mark the bicentennial of the burning of the federal buildings and the loss of national treasures at Washington, D.C., on the night of 24-25 August 1814. It explores the way portraits intersected with politics during the Revolutionary and Imperial Eras in The United States and France. Between the War of Independence of 1776 and the War of 1812, the United States maintained a complicated and tense political relationship with Britain and France, affecting patterns of trade and diplomacy, cultural representation, and consumption on both sides of the Atlantic. The transition from monarchical to republican forms of government was accompanied by a shift from aristocrats to citizens as the primary patrons, artists, subjects, and viewers of portraits. For this reason, images of heads if state, delegates, and their families often reveal an uneasy integration of old aristocratic forms and new republican values. The essays in this book examine representations of major figures such as Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette, George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, and James Madison, among others. They also explore how artists portrayed royal, republican, and imperial heads of state to promote authority; national, state, and provincial delegates to express the values of a faction, constituency, or class; and prominent merchants to depict the burgeoning influence of the citizen.
Session “Republicanism and the Politician’s Portrait,” part of the “Political Portraiture” conference at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., August 2014.
Table of Contents
Preface T. Lawrence Larkin
Introduction T. Lawrence Larkin
PART I: IMAGES OF AUTHORITY IN FRANCE AND THE UNITED STATES
Part I Introduction T. Lawrence Larkin
The U.S. Congress’s State Portraits of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette: The Politics of Display and Displacement at the Capitol, 1800-1814 T. Lawrence Larkin
Bonaparte as a Republican David O’Brien
Man + Horse: Repurposing the Equestrian Portrait in the Post-Revolutionary Era Heather McPherson
PART II: THE PORTRAIT AS DIPLOMATIC GIFT
Part II Introduction Brandon Brame Fortune
Gilbert Stuart’s “Lansdowne” Portrait of George Washington: From Diplomatic Gift to State Portrait Ellen G. Miles
Portraits for Diplomacy: Gilbert Stuart’s Pendant Portraits of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison Gaye S. Wilson
Rivalries and Dissensions within the Maison de l’Empereur: Napoleon’s Portraitists and the Production of Diplomatic Gifts Cyril Lécosse
PART III: REPUBLICANISM AND THE POLITICIAN’S PORTRAIT
Part III Introduction Philippe Bordes
Faces of the Nation: Physionotrace Portraits and the Invention of Political Modernity Guillaume Mazeau
Representing the Representatives: Portraiture and Sovereignty in Revolutionary France, 1789-1795 Gerrit Walczak
Signs of Power: Bonaparte and the Concordat of 1801 Kathryn Calley Galitz
PART IV: PATRIOTISM AND THE FAMILY PORTRAIT
Part IV Introduction Amy Freund
Woman on a Wire: How Marie-Antoinette, d’Angiviller, and Vigée Le Brun Confounded Critics by Balancing Majesty and Maternity at the Salon of 1787 T. Lawrence Larkin
Architectural Portraits: Mount Vernon, Monticello, and La Grange Kevin D. Murphy
Politicizing Portraiture: Family Portraits and Visual Rhetoric in Revolutionary France Marlen Schneider
PART V: THE “FACE” AND “BODY” OF EARLY REPUBLICAN CAPITAL CITIES: PARIS, PHILADELPHIA, NEW YORK, AND WASHINGTON
Part V Introduction Margaretta M. Lovell
Urban Portraits, Two Centuries Ago: Faces, Bodies, and Footprints Jeffrey A. Cohen
From Portrait to Plan: Mapping Capital Cities in France and the United States Min Kyung Lee
Bibliography
About the Contributors
Index
Design by Julie Allred of BW&A Books
Todd Larkin in Washington, D.C., to carry out research on the old north wing of the Capitol (painted by William Birch ca. 1800) at the Architect of the Capitol’s Office and to consult with the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press (Ginger Strader, Editor-in-Chief).
Early assessments:
“The essays…are all extremely accessible but also substantial in scholarship and argument….A fair number of the essays are about closing down on the subject—explaining and resolving it fully (e.g. Miles, Larkin)—so it was good to have an example of an essay (Cohen) that opened everything up and left the subject unresolved….There is a larger audience built into the book because it addresses both Americanists and French modernists, art and architectural historians, and cultural historians of the period.”
– E. Bruce Robertson, University of California
“The book’s introduction by Larkin provides historical context and discusses the purpose and structure of the book….The subjects of the portraits in the essays range from kings and queens to generals, politicians, and presidents, in addition to equestrian, family, and group portraits. Portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte and George Washington dominate. Interestingly, parts four and five present architecture and urban planning as a form of portraiture, with Mount Vernon, Monticello, and La Grange as reflective of their owners’ politics, and with ‘political portraiture…as a powerful metaphor to describe urban space’.…The documentation of the book is strong, with two to three pages of endnotes following each essay….Some of the plates are repeated in later chapters, which is helpful in allowing the essays to stand on their own without the need to flip back or forth to look for relevant plates….Overall it is an impressive work of scholarship and is a fine addition to the study of portraits and politics in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in the United States and France.”
– Virginia Feher, University of North Georgia
Montana State University graduate student assistants Katrin Cottingham and Laurence Alexander preparing to film Philippe Bordes discussing Jacques-Louis David’s Napoleon inHisStudy (1812), National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., August 2014.
