Les Chevaux à Versailles

Horses. Today I visited the Grande Ecurie de Versailles (the Royal stables) that once served Louis XIV. I toured the actual stables, saw the horses and, in the grand tradition, saw a horse show. (They say that since the days of the Sun King, the greatest equestrians of France have performed in these riding halls.) What an unusual experience. How unexpected and entertaining.



The current show, Le Spectacle Equestre, is the brainchild of a Frenchman named Bartabas, an international equestrian celebrity who was brought to Versailles about five years ago to revive the stables and open a school of equestrian theatrical art. Bartabas is famous, among other things, for teaching a horse to gallop backwards. I watched classic dressage and contemporary equestrian choreography. His performers not only ride, they fence on horseback and on foot, perform archery, dance and sing.

The most amazing performance of the show, however, was when the horses were simply turned loose to play. They rolled and reared and nipped at one another. It was not arbitrary though, it was performance. Like nothing I've ever seen. The dressage too was amazing. It brought tears to my eyes and sent me wheeling back to my adolescence when I had an Arabian colt who was the love of my life. Horses are smart, and these creatures were brilliant—and shy. Something in their expressions, honestly, especially when we applauded, seemed humble—not frightened, humble.

All this came about because of Gericault. He spent much of his career painting horses and the stables at Versailles are where he went to study them. I have to write a paper for my Art History class that discusses a painting and a corresponding architectural environment. So I decided to use the stables at Versailles along with one of Gericualt's paintings.

I got to Versailles around 11am. There was an opportunity to watch the horses being trained, but I missed it because I got lost. It was an interesting time, my time being lost. There are two huge stables, one on either side of what must have been the grand avenue leading directly to the palace. I was on the wrong side, and intrepid explorer that I am, I found my way into the courtyard even though everything was closed up.

I walked all over the area, which was about the size of a football field, figuring I must have misunderstood the French on the website, and the stables were closed. Finally, I asked in the Tourist Office and found my way to the right place. While I waited for the afternoon performance, I perched on a big stone near the gate and sketched, yes sketched, the stables. That's part of the assignment for my class.

Jules Hardouin-Mansart was the architect who designed the buildings. He did all the original work at Versailles. The twin stables originally sheltered 600 horses plus all of Louis' stablemen and equestrians, along with pageboys and even musicians. You can see by looking at the buildings that people lived in them. The top floor was for servants. They're just huge, impossible to get the whole of even one of them in a single picture.

About thirty horses live in the stables these days, and they live in considerable luxury. They're mostly Lusitanian, a Portuguese breed with a creamy white coat and blue eyes, the preferred horses of Louis XIV.  They were bred for military purposes originally and were valued for their bravery.

They were trained for bullfighting and dressage because of their flashy gait and powerful presence. Extraordinary animals. I'm still undecided about the painting I'm going to select for my assignment.

I'd like to use Gericault's Mazeppa, which comes from Byron's poem, but it's in a private collection and I can't see the original. Curiously, or coincidentally, Bartabas (the man responsible for the present day equestrian shows) made a film called Mazeppa which is about Gericault.  He apparently likes Gericault too.

I may use this portrait, which hangs in the Louvre.

One more Gericault tidbit: the painting I wrote about, the portrait of Byron? I finally found some additional information. It appears that there's a big question about whether the painting is Gericault's. A Cambridge published book that uses the image says it was "formerly" attributed to Gericault but is now by "anonymous"... I imagine it's because no one has found record of these two artists meeting, although it's possible they met in Rome. It's hard to believe Gericault would have painted a "portrait" of Byron by copying another painting.

I did find a portrait of Byron I'd never seen—by a French painter, a woman who is actually connected to Versailles. Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun. She painted a famous portrait of Marie Antoinette that hangs in Versailles. I saw it when we toured there last month. It turns out she traveled to England in the early 1800s and Byron sat for a portrait with her. He's very young, in college; it's probably from about the time of the hanging scene that opens Requiem. Fascinating to see it. He doesn't look nearly as jaded as in later portraits. I've been thinking about letting Byron make an appearance in The Appassionata, especially when I thought I could tie him to Gericault. Now I don't know. They died the same year, only months apart.