24th Annual Petite Antiques Forum Announced
BATON ROUGE, La (press release) – The Friends of Magnolia Mound Plantation will hold the 24th annual Petite Antiques Forum on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. Each year the Friends organization presents this one day educational event featuring an enlightening and entertaining lecture, luncheon and a tour of a private historic home. The 2024 forum promises to be an exceptional event.
The forum will begin with an illustrated talk by Jim Blanchard at the Louisiana State Archives building on Essen Lane in Baton Rouge. Mr. Blanchard is a contemporary topographical artist known for his architectural archival watercolors of historic Louisiana buildings. His talk, “From Jackson Square to the State Capitol: An 1850s Voyage on the Mississippi from New Orleans to Baton Rouge” will feature images of his paintings to offer a “steamboat tour.”
A native son of Lafourche Parish, Jim Blanchard was reared among the aging plantations and vernacular 19th century architecture of the region. In New Orleans he began creating artwork based on the region’s architectural history. Using ink, watercolor and gouache as his primary medium, he depicts the grand buildings of the past with the precision of an architect, the integrity of a historian and the hand of a master watercolorist. Eschewing the romanticism of decay so often embraced by contemporary artists, Blanchard illustrates these buildings in their original glory, often adding figures in period dress for both scale and context.
Jim Blanchard has also participated in the restorations of Houmas House, Ashland, and Bocage Plantations on the River Road. He designed and oversaw the construction of the Great River Road Museum at Houmas and created its history exhibits.
Following the lecture, forum attendees will travel to Houmas House on the banks of the Mississippi River in Ascension Parish. Through the generosity of the owner of Houmas House the group will have lunch, enhanced by the opportunity to tour the garden and the new Great River Road Museum, as well.
The forum will conclude with tours of two privately owned historic homes on nearby Bayou Lafourche. Although Belle Alliance and Palo Alto Plantations are not often open to the public, their owners generously will open their doors for this group.
Named for a Mexican war battle, Palo Alto Plantation was built in the late 1840s. Believed to have been designed by noted architect James Dakin, the residence is an Anglo Creole type cottage with Greek Revival decoration. Members of the Lemann family have lived here for over 150 years.
Belle Alliance was built in 1846 by Charles Kock, a successful sugar planter. The design of this imposing Greek Revival mansion is attributed to renowned architect Henry Howard. Today Belle Alliance is home to Colby Danna, Jake Stout, and Blaise Blanchard.
The cost of this educational event is $150 per person, which includes the lecture, luncheon, a stroll through the garden and visit to the Great River Road Museum at Houmas House, and tours of two privately owned Bayou Lafourche landmarks. The event will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, January 25, 2024, and conclude that afternoon. Reservations are necessary, and space is limited. Registration may be done online at https://www.friendsofmagnoliamound.org/ Or call Babeth Schlegel at (225) 421-3165 for a registration form.
Proceeds from the Petite Antiques Forum will be used to preserve the collection of decorative arts and artifacts displayed at Magnolia Mound, one of the earliest buildings in Baton Rouge and a historically significant historic structure. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This museum is owned and operated by BREC, and the collection of furnishings is owned and maintained by the Friends, a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) organization.
