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Charles Nicolas Dodin

16 May - 9 September 2012 - Apartment of Madame de Maintenon and King's Guardroom
Curatorship: Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, Curator at the palace of Versailles

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Vasconcelos Versailles

19 June - 30 September 2012
Curatorship : Jean-François Chougnet

Since 2008, the Estate of Versailles has been opened up to contemporary art. An opportunity to create a dialogue between the great artists of the Baroque period – Jules Hardouin-Mansart, André Le Nôtre, Charles Le Brun, Ange-Jacques Gabriel – and contemporary artists: Jeff Koons in 2008, Xavier Veilhan in 2009, Takashi Murakami in 2010 and Bernar Venet in 2011. Encounters that are sometimes contrasting and at other times overlapping mergers, in all cases showing that Versailles is a living place open to creativity.

In 2012, the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos, born in 1971 in Paris, will be the guest of Versailles. Her sculptures, some of which have been produced specifically for this exhibition, will be presented to the public from June to September 2012.

The Ladies of Trianon

3 July - 14 October 2012 – Grand Trianon
Curatorship: Jérémie Benoit, Senior Curator of the Palace of Versailles

This exhibition aims to present a series of portraits of the women, famous or less well-known, who contributed to the history of Trianon.

Apart from the sovereigns, from queen Maria Theresa of Austria to the empress Eugénie, all the women of the royal and imperial families – mothers, sisters, daughters and granddaughters – will be summoned back: alongside the portrait of the Duchesse de Bourgogne, mother of Louis XV, will be exhibited that of Borghèse, Napoleon’s sister, or those of Clémentine and Marie, daughters of Louis-Philippe. Also represented will be the royal favourites, such as Madame de Montespan, Madame Pompadour and Madame Du Barry, and the princesses, including Madame Palatine, the incredible sister-in-law of Louis XIV.  

These famous women will be joined by less well-known figures, ladies of the royal court or women in the service of the sovereigns, such as Madame de Lamballe, Marie-Antoinette’s personal maid, and Madame Campan, her chambermaid. Thanks to the catalogue of the exhibition with its quotations, all these ladies will once again be attending the festivities, weddings and different events organised in the two small rural palaces of Trianon.

Three centuries of the history of France in which women played a role will be revealed to the visitors, who will be able to appreciate the development of successive fashions and of the art of the portrait, thanks to celebrated paintings signed by Gobert, Rigaud, Nattier, Gérard, Gros and Winterhalter.  

Versailles and Antiquity

13 November 2012 - 17 March 2013
Curators: Alexandre Maral and Nicolas Milovanovic, curators of the palace of Versailles and Geneviève Besc and Jean-Luc Martinez, curator at the Musée du Louvre

Versailles was a new Rome in several ways: in its grandiose size, in its ambition to endure through the centuries, and in the many references to the great models of Antiquity. In the 17th century, Antiquity was an incomparable absolute, which the most ambitious sovereigns wished to rival: Louis XIV created Versailles as the seat of power to bring back the grandeur of Antiquity.

More than all the other European sovereigns, Louis XIV sought to acquire the most prestigious antique pieces or to have copies made of them. Versailles was their sanctuary: statues and busts in the Grand Apartments and gardens, cameos and medals and small bronzes in the King’s cabinet. This collection assembled in Versailles and Marly offered the vision of Antiquity restored for the glory of the King.

The exhibition will bring back to Versailles about fifty antiques that it possessed during the Ancien Régime. The interpretation of Antiquity and its mythology will be evoked through about two hundred works from the principal French and foreign collections (Louvre, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Musée des Beaux-Arts of Besançon, Uffizi Gallery of Florence, National Gallery of London, etc.): sculptures, paintings, drawings, engravings, tapestries, pieces of furniture, objets d’art.

Madame Elisabeth (1764-1794) (interim title)

2013 - Exhibition in the Estate of Madame Elisabeth
Curatorship: Juliette Trey, Curator at the palace of Versailles

This princess never married and was allowed to stay on in Versailles close to her brother Louis XVI and her sister-in-law Marie-Antoinette. On her nineteenth birthday, Louis XVI gave her the Estate of Montreuil, a kind of country residence close to the Palace of Versailles. Music, science, painting, reading, embroidery and games: Madame Elisabeth, a pious and generous soul, spent her simple and happy days here surrounded by her friends. She came of age in 1789 on her twenty-fifth birthday and at last had the right to sleep in Montreuil. The events of the Revolution then decided otherwise.

This exhibition, coproduced with the General Council of the Yvelines department, will be held in the Residence and Orangerie of the Estate of Montreuil. The house, exceptionally opened to the public, will offer an evocation of the setting of the princess through the furniture and objects that surrounded her. The exhibition’s scenographic design will strive to restore the intimate atmosphere of Montreuil. The Orangerie will present the life of Madame Elisabeth, from her birth to her death, with the emphasis on her stays in Montreuil, through a varied selection of works: paintings, graphic arts and objects.

More information about Madame Elisabeth