Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The French Antigone

Ernest Daudet's biography of Madame Royale includes some prints from the early nineteenth century portraying the daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette supporting her gouty uncle Louis XVIII during their exile in the Russian empire. She was nicknamed the "French Antigone." The same book includes a description which Louis XVIII wrote in 1799 of his niece to his brother Artois, calling her "our daughter" and comparing her to their sister Madame Elisabeth. Share