Reflections of the Sun: Blenheim and Versailles

When John Churchill (1650–1722), the first Duke of Marlborough routed Louis XIV’s armies in the War of the Spanish Succession he claimed the spoils of victory. He looted a thirty-ton marble bust of his adversary from Tournai and installed it on the top of Blenheim Palace as a trophy. The removal of this statue from what was once the site of the French king’s power to this new national monument signalled a change in the balance of power in Europe.

Nearly two hundred years after Blenheim was built, Charles Spencer-Churchill (1871–1934), the ninth Duke of Marlborough vowed to restore his family’s reputation and its seat, Blenheim, to its former glory. With the family coffers diminished and the income from his estates inadequate, he married Conseulo Vanderbilt, one of the most eligible ‘dollar duchesses’ of the age. The renovation of Blenheim Palace carried out with the vast Vanderbilt dowry made that British house more French than it was ever meant to be. This talk will show that Blenheim's once subtle play of emulation and rivalry became an out-and-out tribute to the style of old regime France.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Associate Professor Robert Wellington is Director of the Centre for Art History and Art Theory, at the Australian National University, co-editor of Humanities Research Journal, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He has published extensively in English and French on the art and culture of Louis XIV’s France.

Recognised internationally as an expert on the arts of ancien-régime France, Robert has been a visiting professor at the prestigious Centre André Chastel in Paris and the Université de Quèbec à Montréal. He has presented numerous conference papers and invited lectures on the art of Louis XIV’s court around the world at venues including the Courtauld Institute, London, the John Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Frick Collection, New York, Institut Nationale de l’Histoire de l’Art, Paris, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, and the Château de Versailles.

Robert’s talk this evening is taken his book Versailles Mirrored: The power of Luxury from Louis XIV to Donald Trump which will be published by Bloomsbury next year.

Ticket includes one beverage on arrival. No entry to Salon des Refusés

Limited parking available on-site.

Wheelchair accessible.

Banner image detail: Louis XIV, c. 1670, marble, from the Porte Royale in the citadel of Tournai, now located on the garden-side façade of Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (Image courtesy of Robert Wellington)