Axel von Fersen the Younger the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. In contrast to Versailles, the dress and manners at the Petit Trianon were simple and down-to-earth; her guests were personally invited and treated equally, as friends. However, the private festivities often caused jealousy among those who were excluded from them. In the 1770s, the American Revolutionary War began with the passage of the Intolerable acts, and the battles of Lexington and Concord, and Bunker Hill. von Fersen told Beaumont that in France "it is the fashion to rhapsodize over the Americans' rebelliousness against England". France had officially declared war against her "natural enemy"
The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort Philippe The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort Philippe The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort Philippe is a pointillist painting by French artist Georges Seurat, located in the Indianapolis Museum of Art in Indianapolis, Indiana. Painted in 1890, the year before his death, it depicts a harbor in the small French port of Gravelines. Described as "wistful and poetic," it is one of the treasures of the IMA. As one of Seurat's final paintings, "The Channel of Gravelines, Petit Fort Philippe" demonstrates beautifully the principles of Seurat's own Neo-Impressionist movement. His systematic application of dots in colors carefully chosen according to laws