NewsEvents

Desk top of the Library of Louis XVI

March 2012

This mahogany desk with gilt bronze decoration was made around 1785 by the cabinet-maker Jean-François Limonne for the library of Louis XVI located on the second floor of his apartment in the central section of the palace. It was used every day by Louis XVI for the numerous books that he consulted.

The large desk top (3.90m long and 1.85m wide) is supported by six moulded legs with copper capitals topped by a large gilt bronze peg enabling it to be dismantled. Each of the drawers around the rail has a keyhole plate with a ribbon pattern and a mobile ring on either side with a rosette pattern. The desk top carved in one piece was originally covered with green leather.

Matching deposits from the Institut de France and the palace of Versailles now enables this exceptional piece of furniture to return to its original location. In parallel, the palace of Versailles restores to the Musée Condé on the Chantilly estate, owned by the Institut de France, a writing table executed by André-Charles Boulle around 1715 for Louis-Henri de Bourbon, 7th Prince de Condé.

This acquisition was made possible thanks to matching deposits from the Institut de France and the palace of Versailles.

Punch-bowl from the dinner service with a sky-blue background of Louis XV

January 2012

This punch-bowl formed part of the large dinner service “à fond bleu céleste” (with a sky-blue background) executed for Louis XV between 1753 and 1755 at the royal porcelain Manufactory, then installed in the Château de Vincennes. It consisted of 1,749 pieces of soft-paste porcelain decorated with flowers and fruits in cartouches underlined in gold. The sky-blue background used was created by the chemist Hellot specially to mark this commission. After it was delivered, this service was used by the royal family until the end of the Ancien Régime.

Exceptional for its decoration and its ample size matching the huge set to which it belonged, this punch-bowl also stands out for its excellent state of conservation and its novelty at the time of the commission: it was a new design imported from England for a new drink, punch, served at the end of the meal with dessert. It accompanies the seven pieces belonging to the same service already on view in the palace of Versailles in the “porcelain” dining-room.

This acquisition was made possible thanks to the sponsorship of KPMG.

Portrait of Madame de Lamballe by Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun

November 2011

Princesse de Lamballe and Marie-Antoinette were close friends from the time they met at the wedding of the Austrian princess and the future Louis XVI in 1770 until the death of Madame de Lamballe during the massacres of September 1792. But the palace of Versailles possessed no portrait of the princess dating from this period.

When Elisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun painted the portrait of Madame de Lamballe her model was aged thirty-three. Vigée-Le Brun adopted the approach that she had already used a number of times for different models, including the queen: she wears a simple muslin dress (known as “en gaulle”, a “shirt” dress) and a straw hat. This portrait is similar to others of women in the queen’s entourage painted by Vigée-Lebrun and already in the collections of the palace of Versailles, notably the portrait of the other great friend of Marie-Antoinette, the duchesse de Polignac.

Portrait of the countess Du Barry as Flora by François-Hubert Drouais

May 2011

François-Hubert Drouais (1727-1775) was Madame Du Barry’s official painter who produced many portraits of her. At the Salon of 1769 he exhibited two portraits, one depicting her as Flora and the other in hunting costume. Between 1770 and 1774, Madame Du Barry had him paint seven or eight replicas of her portrait as Flora, each slightly different, intended for her entourage. It is probably the first version of this portrait, the one exhibited at the Salon of 1769, that the Palace of Versailles has acquired.

This painting will enrich the collections of the Palace of Versailles. It joins the fine series of portraits painted by François-Hubert Drouais already possessed by the Palace of Versailles. Above all, on the date of its acquisition, the Palace no longer had any portrait of Madame Du Barry who was a major figure in the last years of the reign of Louis XV.

The acquisition of this portrait was made possible thanks to the support of the Société des Amis de Versailles

Pastel portrait of the Comtesse d’Artois by Joseph Boze

May 2011

Joseph Boze, a better pastellist than painter, specialised in oval pastel portraits. After moving to Versailles in 1785, he received important portrait commissions for the royal family in the same year. Marie-Thérèse de Savoie, the sister-in-law of Louis XVI, then aged 29, is painted in shades of grey and blue that accentuate her melancholy air. The treatment of the fabrics impresses by its precision and illusionist aspect, and the pastel technique softens her facial features, though her contemporaries described their coarseness. The Comtesse d’Artois appeared to be satisfied with her portrait and commissioned two copies that she gave to ladies in her circle.

This portrait in Versailles is the last known depiction of the Comtesse d’Artois but also the most faithful and accurate rendering of her facial features. It completes the fine collection of pastels by Boze possessed by the palace of Versailles.

Desk made by Riesener for Marie-Antoinette

March 2011

This desk, ordered by Marie-Antoinette from her favourite cabinet-maker, Jean-Henri Riesener, was originally intended for the salon of the Queen’s house in the Hamlet. It is exceptional for its very fine finish and decoration, as well as for its rarity: like all the other furniture of Versailles, it was disposed of during the Revolutionary auctions of 1793-94. Many of these pieces of furniture are now definitively immobilised in British and American museums. The acquisition of this desk, which returns to Versailles after 217 years, is a major event for the Palace and an outstanding expression of the refurnishing policy initiated in the 1950s.

This acquisition was made possible thanks to the support of Sanofi - Aventis and LVMH.

Learn more about this desk and its acquisition