Claude-Henri Watelet
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Claude-Henri Watelet was a rich French fermier-général who was an amateur painter, a well-respected etcher, a writer on the arts and a connoisseur of gardens. Watelet's inherited privilege of farming
Portrait of Watelet by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, c. 1763–65
Hameau de la Reine
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The Hameau de la Reine is a rustic retreat in the park of the Château de Versailles built for Marie Antoinette in 1783 near the Petit Trianon in Yvelines, France. It served as a private meeting place
Claude-Henri Watelet
…Trianon began to be remodelled; by 1783 two sides of the pavilion looked onto small glades of lawn encircled by sweeps and clumps of trees, and her petit hameau was finished, like a stage set for a pastorale, reflecting itself at the far end of a little lake no larger than a village pond. In Greuze's portrait…
Maison de la reine and the Tour de Marlborough (left) in the hameau at the Petit Trianon park of Versailles
Back of the Moulin, the watermill cottage built for Marie Antoinette
A "cottage garden"
"Marie Antoinette in a muslin dress", Marie Louise Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1783. She was criticized for not including symbols of royalty in the portrait. When white cotton dresses became en vogue, the queen was criticized for ruining the local silk industry to favor imported cotton.