But as a patron, whom he faithfully served for 14 years, Marie Antoinette showed herself to be a kind friend and mother who shouldered a publicly difficult marriage under close scrutiny from numerous detractors. Fargeon would come to condemn Marie Antoinette as queen for her disengagement from her responsibilities, and for symbolizing the corruption of the monarchy. He left the family business in Montpellier, Grasse’s rival city, to finish his apprenticeship in Paris.ĭuring Fargeon’s steady ascent into the upper echelons of royal society, he bore witness to the exorbitant lifestyle enjoyed at court, as well as the routine cattiness and rigid etiquette. When Marie Antoinette arrived from Austria in 1770 to marry Louis XVI, heir to France’s throne, Fargeon quickly saw that she embodied the fresh, youthful beauty he sought to capture with his simple, natural-smelling scents. Fargeon’s egalitarian beliefs did not, however, stifle his professional aspirations. Drawing on Fargeon’s papers, historian Elizabeth de Feydeau’s A Scented Palace: The Secret History of Marie Antoinette’s Perfumer is an illuminating biography of the reviled queen and a rich introduction to the era’s perfumed luxuries.Īs a member of the merchant class, Fargeon’s education included the philosophy of the Enlightenment era, as well as the art and science of his skilled trade. But unlike the majority of the queen’s circle, which was prone to spending recklessly and engaging solely in frivolous pastimes, Fargeon was a competent businessman and an intellectual who would actively support the Revolution’s aims (if not its executions). Like other royal purveyors, Marie Antoinette’s perfumer Jean-Louis Fargeon had an intimate view of the queen’s troubled tenure and the Revolution’s bloody reforms.
Given the resulting chamber pot situation, you can understand why she spent a few thousand livres a year on perfumed toiletries. During the reign of Marie Antoinette, more than 5,000 people lived and worked at Versailles.
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