French interiors of the C18th: what do they tell us about their lifestyles?

Sat Oct 25 2025 at 11:00 am to 12:00 pm UTC+11:00

Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts | Hobart

State Library and Archive Service
Publisher/HostState Library and Archive Service
French interiors of the C18th: what do they tell us about their lifestyles?
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Rare chance to hear international art historian John Whitehead talk about some of the specialities of the Allport collection.
About this Event

“In my view you must either do away with ornament or make ornament the essence. It’s not something you add. It’s not icing on a cake. It’s everything – or it’s nothing.”

Jean-Antoine Watteau

About

French interior decoration and the decorative arts of the eighteenth century are widely regarded as reaching an extraordinary level of quality and refinement.

Drawing mostly from contemporary paintings and drawings of interiors, this talk will take us into the living rooms, the dining rooms and the boudoirs of eighteenth century Paris and explore how interiors were decorated, furnished, and inhabited by the Parisian elite, and how they lived.

Allport collection

From the 1930s to the 1960s, Henry Allport and his wife Daisy added to Daisy’s family collection of export Chinese and early English ware. Today, her collection is only one of three collections of this type in Australia. The collection is also home to a number of examples of fine French decorative arts, including the Sèvres vase pictured. The French vases, clocks and other eighteenth century items will be on display during the talk.

John Whitehead

John Whitehead is a UK based art historian, dealer, writer and lecturer specialising in French eighteenth and nineteenth century interior decoration and works of art, with an emphasis on Sèvres porcelain.

Image credits

De Troy Garter, 1724

The Garter is an oil on canvas painting by French painter Jean-François de Troy, from 1724. It is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.

Blarenberghe Choiseul Box 1770

The celebrated "Choiseul Snuffbox" was created by the goldsmith Louis Roucel and miniaturist Louis-Nicolas Van Blarenberghe, circa 1770-71. Within its tiny gold framework, the gouache miniatures are set beneath crystal glazing and depict, all save one, interiors of the Hôtel de Choiseul, the duc de Choiseul's Parisian hôtel particulier on the Rue de Richelieu

Sevres Vase, Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts collection, State Library and Archives of Tasmania

John Whitehead at the Elysee Palace.

This event is presented in conjunction with the Friends of the Allport.

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, 91 Murray Street, Hobart, Australia

Tickets

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