After learning of the bread shortages that were occurring in Paris at the time of Louis XVI's coronation in Rheims, as quoted in Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser, "Tradition persists that Marie Antoinette joked 'Let them eat cake!' This phrase, however, occurs in a passage of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, written in 1766, when Marie Antoinette was ten years old and four years before her marriage to Louis XVI (135)."

Van Meytens.  Marie Antoinette. 1767.
http://www.marie-antoinette.org/gallery/details.php?image_id=26

The Yellow Salon, The Schonbrunn Palace, Austria including original rococo elements
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_FfVf0AjTN9M/SwxjLr-3V1I/AAAAAAAAF7s/2GLBC3fjRjA/s1600/yellow+salon.jpg

rococo = 18th century style characterized by fanciful curved asymmetrical forms, elaborate ornamentation, opulence, grace and playfulness

1648 Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture founded in France

Academies grew out of the salons held at the Hôtel de Rambouillet,
which discussed literature during the late 1620s and early 1630s.

Louis XIV proclaimed in his founding address that the intention of the Academy
was to reward all worthy artists "without regard to the difference of sex."

Anne Seymour Damer. The Damerian Apollo. 1789.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anne_Seymour_Damer_(The_Damerian_Apollo)_1798.jpg

1648 - 1706

Seven women gained admittance to Academy

1706

Academy declared itself closed to women

1770

Limit of four women members at any one time

Women not admitted to Academy school

Women banned from competing for Prix de Rome

1925

Odette Pauvert became first woman to win the Prix

Piero Antonio Martini. The Paris Salon of 1787. 1787. (engraving)
http://www.arthistory-archaeology.umd.edu/ARTHwebsitedecom
missionedNov32008/webresources/courses/ARTH346/Salon.jpg

To show at a salon, a young artist needed to be received by the Académie by first submitting an artwork to the jury; only Académie artists could be shown in the salons. Salons were started under Louis XIV and continued until 1704. After a hiatus, the salons started up again in 1725.

Nicolas Poussin. The Abduction of the Sabine Women. c. 1633-34.
Janson, H.W. and Anthony F. Janson. History of Art. 6th Ed. Vol. 2. North Carolina: Prentice Hall and Harry N. Abrams, 2001.

During a visit to Paris in 1721, Carriera's paintings were in high demand. She portrayed many important nobles, including the King and members of his court and was elected to the Academy by acclamation.

Rosalba Carriera. Charles Sackville. c. 1730.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: Prentice Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams, 2005.

Rosalba Carriera. Portrait of Louis XV. 1720.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Rosalba Carriera. Antoine Watteau. 1721.

Jean-Antoine Watteau.Pilgrimage to Cithera. 1717.
Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: Prentice Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams, 2005.

Louis c. 1770
http://www.flickr.com/photos/58409047@N04/5368778111/in/photostream/

Joseph Ducreux.  Marie Antoinette at the age of thirteen. 1768.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Antoinette_by_Joseph_Ducreux.jpg

Joseph Siffred Duplessis. 
Louis XVI in Coronation Robes. 1777.
http://www.myartprints.com/kunst/joseph_siffred_duplessis/louis_xvi.jpg

Elisabeth Louise Vigee-Lebrun. Marie Antoinette. 1778.
http://media.kunst-fuer-alle.de/img/41/g/41_00093075~_
elisabeth-louise-vigee-lebrun_marie-antoinette-1778---vigee-lebrun.jpg

Upon his sucession to the throne in 1774, Louis gave Marie Le Petit Trianon for her sole enjoyment and privacy

18th-century pornographic portrayal of
Marie Antoinette and the duchess of Pequigny
http://sappho.fromthesquare.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/11-Marie-Antoinette-pornography.jpg

Cartoon satirizing Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
http://www.marie-antoinette.org/gallery/details.php?image_id=33