Royal Blue Wallpaper for Agnes Sorel

I've created lairs, dens, secret bedchambers and a dance stage for the otherworldly temptresses of my Bowers of Bliss collection. This painting is a little different. Rather than painting a place, I've designed wallpaper for a place -- the Château de Beauté belonging to Agnes Sorel, the real-life mistress of Charles VII of France.

Sorel was an artist model who posed for many paintings including as the pale Madonna baring her ample left breast in Jean Fouquet's Virgin and Child surrounded by Angels. As the favorite mistress of Charles VII, Agnes Sorel had enormous influence over the King and his governing of France but she is still most famous for her single exposed breast. She became a medieval fashion trendsetter for flaunting her body with her bare arms, plunging necklines and unlaced bodices.

Charles VII gave Sorel anything she wanted including an official title maîtresse-en-titre, and a chateau. Although she had many beautiful tapestries, I imagine Agnes would have loved some ornate wallpaper for the boudoir of her Château de Beauté. So I designed some for her in royal blue, festooned with pearls and abstract balloon-like shapes in honor of her of her famous bosom. Wallpaper would be a truly extravagant luxury for Agnes who died in 1450, almost two centuries before wallpaper existed in Europe!

Agnes Sorel's name is inscribed on the Heritage Floor of The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago.