Melchior-Paul von Deschwanden (Swiss, 1811 – 1881) The Study of a Young Man (Studie eines jungen Mannes), 1829/1881

Melchior-Paul von Deschwanden (Swiss, 1811 – 1881) The Study of a Young Man (Studie eines jungen Mannes), 1829/1881

Happy Saint Patrick's day from le château de Hopkins

Happy Saint Patrick's day from le château de Hopkins

Artist Andrew LaMar Hopkins

Andrew LaMar Hopkins

BY LEE CUTRONE

THOM BENNETT PHOTOGRAPH

An avowed Francophile and person of Creole descent, artist Andrew LaMar Hopkins is passionate about France and its cultural influence in Louisiana.  Over the past 17 years, he has visited Paris 30 times and created 300 works depicting historic New Orleans residences and their inhabitants. “I went to Paris the first time when I was 20,” says Hopkins, whose family moved from Mobile, Alabama, to New Orleans during his teens. “I felt like [France] is where I should have been born.”

  

Hopkins’ affinity for all things French began in childhood. As a boy he used clay to create accurate miniatures of 18th- and 19th-century antiques and later expanded his miniature-métier to include complete rooms, featuring details such as cornice moldings and marbleized mantels. Today, he paints 18th and 19th century interiors and people and describes his work as “historical folk outsider art.” His period subject matter and simple, non-dimensional renderings of people are reminiscent of the Early American Primitive School of portrait painters, a comparison he welcomes as an admirer of renowned painters Joshua Johnson and Julien Hudson (both of mixed race heritage like Hopkins himself). “As I began to paint, people told me my style was Naïve,” recalls the self-taught artist, who juxtaposes his Naïve human forms with meticulously replicated decorative elements and vivid colors true to the fashions of the time.

Five years ago, Hopkins found that his historic tableaus intersected his own life. “I discovered I was kin to a major Creole family whose French ancestors came from Tours, France, in 1710,” he says. On his paternal side, he is a direct descendent of Nicolas Baudin, who obtained a land grant in 1710 for an island south of Mobile, which he named Mon Louis after his hometown of Mont Louis, France. As a descendent of Baudin, he also is related to several French governors of Louisiana.

Hopkins’ paintings often include famous Creoles of New Orleans such as John James Audubon and Marie Laveau and are displayed in such well-known local establishments as Dooky Chase’s Restaurant and Lucullus. New works are for sale at Nadine Blake and Rue Royale Gallery. He also works by commission. Current commissions include an 1855 Creole townhouse in Treme (built for Louise Vitry, a free woman of color) and the Jacques Dupré house, a historic plantation in Pointe Coupée Parish.

find his work

facebook.com/andrewhopkinsfolkart, 230-2478, andrew1860@aol.com

This article appears in the Spring 2015 issue of New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles
Did you like what you read here? Subscribe to New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles »

MISS BETZY PICKING ROSES ; LITTLE BOY HOLDING A BIRD'S NEST 1770 by FRANÇOIS HUBERT DROUAIS

MISS BETZY PICKING ROSES ; LITTLE BOY HOLDING A BIRD'S NEST 1770 by FRANÇOIS HUBERT DROUAIS

In Memoriam of Marie Antoinette (2 November, 1755 - 16 October, 1793)

In Memoriam of Marie Antoinette (2 November, 1755 - 16 October, 1793)

Seated Gladiator (1784-1788) by Jean-Germain Drouais

Seated Gladiator (1784-1788) by Jean-Germain Drouais

Marie Antoinette's Belvedere and the Rock on the grounds of the Petit Trianon

The Belvedere and the Rock were built in the English Garden laid out at the request of Marie-Antoinette around the Petit Trianon. 

The English Garden was very popular. The Belvedere, which Marie-Antoinette used as her music and tea room, was described as “the height of perfection, taste and carving” by Prince Charles-Joseph de Ligne. 

When Louis XVI gave the Petit Trianon to Marie-Antoinette it was surrounded by a botanical garden laid out for Louis XV in 1750. This place of scientific experimentation no longer corresponded to the fashion for gardens which was changing fast: the model of French-style formal gardens was being replaced by the more picturesque landscaped gardens based on the English style.

The botanical garden of Louis XV was replaced by the English Garden that Marie-Antoinette instructed the Comte de Caraman to design and her architect Richard Mique to lay out. The result is an English-style garden with a rather simple designed, featuring a stream and punctuated by small decorative constructions called “fabriques”. They were built between 1777 and 1787 in several styles: exotic, natural, rustic and inspired by antiquity.

Built between 1778 and 1781, the Belvedere, along with Cupid’s Temple, was the only building of the English Garden built by Richard Mique. The Rock, built between 1778 and 1782, is the work of the painter Hubert Robert.

The Rock, entirely artificial, adds a “mountain” theme to the garden. Its piping and tank placed behind it form a torrent whose water is caught in the ornamental lake facing the Belvedere.

Richard Mique designed a building with an octagonal plan on a stone base and crowned with a balustrade. Its eight sides are pierced by four alternating doors and four windows. The doors are surmounted by triangular pediments decorated with sculpted rustic themes; the windows have low reliefs evoking the four seasons. The four flights of steps giving access to the Belvedere are framed by groups of two sphinxes.

The Rock, entirely artificial, adds a “mountain” theme to the garden. Its piping and tank placed behind it form a torrent whose water is caught in the ornamental lake facing the Belvedere.

The Rock, which completes this landscaped scene, drawn and designed by the painter Hubert Robert, forms the pendant to the Belvedere with its contrasting aesthetic.

Outside, it is decorated with sculptures by Deschamps: a fruit frieze garland once painted with colors, pediments evoking the pleasures of hunting and gardening, window imposts symbolizing the four seasons.

Used by the queen as her music & tea room, I own porcelain tea cups made by Marie Antoinette's porcelain factory known as Fabrique de la Reine or  rue Thiroux. The Belvedere pavilion, like Cupid’s Temple, is decorated in the classical style. The balance of its proportions, the refinement of its sculpture and the richness of its interior paintings of rural themes is completed by the patterned polychrome marble floor.

Guarded by figures of sphinxes framing each of the flights of steps

Inside, the decorative stucco work embellished with floral motifs painted in oil is balanced by the polychrome marble floor.

Salon du Rocher with stucco walls highlighted by arabesque and floral patterns are rounded off by polychrome marble tiles.

Guarded by figures of sphinxes framing each of the flights of steps, The Belevedere was also known as the pavilion of music, and was decorated with murals inspired by the paintings of Pompeii. The richness of its stucco decor on a white background highlighted by colorful arabesque and floral patterns. the Belvedere is built in the classical style matching that of the Temple of Love.The Grotto, located downhill from it, is a totally artificial rock feature, designed and sketched by the painter Hubert Robert, in the form of a pendant in a contrasting aesthetic style. Outside, it is decorated with sculptures by Deschamps: a fruit frieze garland once painted with colors, pediments evoking the pleasures of hunting and gardening, window imposts symbolizing the four seasons. The circular living room is paved with a marble mosaic tiles in interlocking semicircle and stair pattern.

Furnishing the Pavillion of the Belvedere. The furnishing of the Belvedere was some of the most expensive items Marie Antoinette ordered. The pieces are very will documented as the original bills exist in the Archives Nationale in Paris. and were used in her trial during the French Revolution. In 1780, François Foliot made eight gilt wood armchairs and eight side chairs, designed in the Neoclassical style with carved bands of ivy, laurel wreaths, and fluting, they stood in the salon du Rocher of the Belvedere Pavilion, designed by Jacques Gondoin. This was one of Foliot’s last commissions before being replaced in the Queen’s favor by Georges Jacob. It is possible that the sculptor of the beautiful hymen’s torch uprights on the back and the pierced seat rail were sculpted by Foliot’s uncle, Nicolas Quinibert Foliot. What made this seating furniture so expensive was the hand embroidered gold and silver threads on a cream background. 

Salon du Rocher with stucco walls highlighted by arabesque and floral patterns are rounded off by polychrome marble tiles.

The octagonal Belvedere was built between (1778-81), and consecrated to the four Seasons

                                                                                

Outside, it is decorated with sculptures by Deschamps: a fruit frieze garland once painted with colors, pediments evoking the pleasures of hunting and gardening, window imposts symbolizing the four seasons.

Salon du Rocher with stucco walls highlighted by arabesque and floral patterns are rounded off by polychrome marble tiles.