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Jean-Michel Moreau le jeune

The Royal Feast (Le Festin Royal)

Maker

Jean-Michel Moreau le jeune (French, 1741-1814), printmaker
After Pierre Louis Moreau-Desproux (French, 1727 - 1793), designer

Title

The Royal Feast (Le Festin Royal)

Year

1782

Medium

  • Etching and engraving on paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Etching and engraving on paper

Materials

engraving, etching

Supports

  • Medium weight off-white laid paper

Dimensions

Plate: 52.2 x 39.5 cm (20 9/16 x 15 9/16 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Murray S. Danforth, Jr.

Object Number

50.312

Type

  • Prints

Exhibition History

The Festive City
Dec 21, 2012 – Jul 14, 2013

Label copy

The birth of the Dauphin (heir to the French throne) to King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of France in October 1781 was a significant event, and the king spared no expense in the planning of a feast, masked ball, and fireworks in the city of Paris to honor his new son. To accommodate the banquet and ball, the civic organizers spent two months building a temporary structure adjacent to the Hôtel de Ville. The temporary gallery, shown as the setting of this print, was painted with simulated colored marbles, lapis, and gold, while crystal chandeliers were hung with flowers. On the day of the feast, the queen rode throughout the city, and then arrived at the banquet hall to meet the king (the scene shown here), where she dined with seventy-eight guests. Sugar sculptures on the table suggest the sumptuousness of the feast. Accounts relate, however, that few people actually received their food because the waiters could not get to the table (a story that Moreau corroborates by depicting empty plates). The ball, which took place two days later, was intended for invited guests, but, according to contemporary accounts, a throng of uninvited commoners inundated the hall, heading straight to the buffets. The king and queen made an unexpected appearance, causing further uproar.

Dress, Art, and Society
1750-1890
Sep 13, 1996 – Jan 05, 1997

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Jean-Michel Moreau le jeune (French, 1741-1814), printmaker
After Pierre Louis Moreau-Desproux (French, 1727 - 1793), designer
The Royal Feast (Le Festin Royal), 1782
Etching and engraving on paper
Plate: 52.2 x 39.5 cm (20 9/16 x 15 9/16 inches)
Gift of Murray S. Danforth, Jr. 50.312

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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