Tag Archives: francois boucher paintings

manon lescaut: “a veritable leech”

Perfide Manon and Abbe Prevost. She was the classic cocotte, he the classic dupe; first the Abbe wrote his famous story, and then he set out to live it… …In any case, the Abbe removed hurriedly from England to Holland … Continue reading

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tencin: high wire act between rationalism and passion

“My menagerie,” Alexandrine Tencin called her salon; her guests were “mes betes.” Her Tuesdays she filled with good talk, high spirits, and low comedy involving chamber pots and such. Her leisure she filled with literature, the recourse of the bored. … Continue reading

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tencin: stockjobbing the abbe and others

It was the Regency period in France, beginning in 1715 and was a hey-day of cynical license in the last legs of the aged Louis XIV. And Mme Alexandrine de Tencin found no lack of companions. Her vows from the … Continue reading

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bank heist: meltdown on the Mississippi

It is really a case of the greater fool hypothesis. That is, no matter how high the price of something gets whipped up in speculative frenzy, there are always others who are willing to pay for it. The Mississippi Bubble … Continue reading

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how grows your garden: vegetable patch kids

Andre Le Notre laid out many noble gardensĀ  which soon became world famous. Versailles in particular was envied by every prince in Europe. And in the century and more that followed, these royal gardens were copied all over the civilized … Continue reading

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