Petit Trianon: antechamber

I thought I would begin the tour of Marie Antoinette's personal rooms with her monogram. This metalwork of her initials are the doorknobs (modern) of the tour entrance to the Petit Trianon, where the gift shop is. You are then led through the service courtyard, along the rough stone corridor, through the guards chamber, up the grand staircase and arrive at the Antechamber or anteroom (follow all that without getting lost?).

This is a small room which seperates the 'public' grand stairhall from the dining room. The room continues the beautiful soft green seen in the billiards room but with more highly finished boiseries. As this building is done in the neoclassical style (and for me is the epitome of it), the boiseries are delicate: narrow stiles and rails with restrained ornamentation.

You see the room above off the grand stairhall in blue. The single window on the left faces the formal French Garden with the view culminating at the French Pavilion. The 2 windows on the bottom of the plan face the entry courtyard. The French garden was left in the more formal style put in place by Madame de Pompadour and Louis XV while the rest of the gardens were done in a more casual 'English' garden style favored at the time, as witnessed today when you visit. The room is lit by a traditional french lantern befitting the style. Under the lantern you see the top of the famous Portrait of MA, 'Marie Antoinette a la rose' by Elizabeth Vigee-Lebrun.

The portrait was hurriedly comissioned in 1783 after the first portrait of Marie Antoinette by Lebrun created a scandal for the informal way in which she was depicted. So in this portrait, she is shown in high 'court' style in full makeup and satin gown.
The room has 2 beautiful white marble busts on columns flanking the window with the garden view, but unfortuantely I can't remember who they are!
The doors leading into the dining room have a more ornate boiserie and again, beautiful gilded bronze hardware. Imagine carving all of this by hand!