Reflections of the Sun: Blenheim and Versailles

Description

When John Churchill (1650–1722), the first Duke of Marlborough routed Louis XIV’s armies in the War of the Spanish Succession he claimed the spoils of victory. He looted a thirty-ton marble bust of his adversary from Tournai and installed it on the top of Blenheim Palace as a trophy. The removal of this statue from what was once the site of the French king’s power to this new national monument signalled a change in the balance of power in Europe.

Nearly two hundred years after Blenheim was built, Charles Spencer-Churchill (1871–1934), the ninth Duke of Marlborough vowed to restore his family’s reputation and its seat, Blenheim, to its former glory. With the family coffers diminished and the income from his estates inadequate, he married Conseulo Vanderbilt, one of the most eligible ‘dollar duchesses’ of the age. The renovation of Blenheim Palace carried out with the vast Vanderbilt dowry made that British house more French than it was ever meant to be. This talk will show that Blenheim's once subtle play of emulation and rivalry became an out-and-out tribute to the style of old regime France.

Period	Oct 2024
Held at	David Roche Foundation, Australia
Degree of Recognition	National