Linda Ganstrom

Linda Ganstrom

Nature Maid: Tia Maria

Porcelain figure on welded steel base covered in tulle

 

 

 

Inspiration and Celebration



Marie Antoinette lived from November 2, 1755 to October 16, 1793 (executed age 37). 

Queen Consort of France and Navarre, 1774 – 1792 (18 years). 

Daughter of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Therese of Austria.  She was engaged in 1765 then married to Louis XVI of France in 1770.

She was Queen Consort from 1774 – 1792 (18 years).  Maria has a passion for fashion and her love of nature, gardens and the countryside inspired Marie Antoinette to transform fashion into simpler styles.  She changed court fashion and makeup from the wide skirts and heavy paste makeup to a more natural feminine look, and loved the light muslin fabrics and straw hats of a Nature Maid. She renovated the Petite Trianon, a smaller palace at Versailles and created a model hamlet in the gardens.  She loved the arts and performed in plays and musicals.  She had fair skin, strawberry blond hair, and blue eyes.  She gave birth to four children.  

During the French Revolution, she was imprisoned, then beheaded.  She saw the extremes of life and had time for reflection in her solitary confinement.  The death of her husband and separation from her children must have been deeply felt.