«Marie Antoinette style», exceptional loans to the Victoria & Albert Museum

On the occasion of the exhibition Marie Antoinette Style, the Château de Versailles is lending around twenty works to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Among them are the celebrated portrait of Marie-Antoinette à la rose by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, pieces from the Queen’s prestigious “perles et barbeaux” (“pearls and cornflowers”) porcelain service, and the replica of the jewel at the heart of the infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace, all being presented for the first time in the United Kingdom.

Marie Antoinette at the Château de Versailles

Queen Marie Antoinette left a lasting imprint on the Château de Versailles, with her name now inextricably linked to it. From her arrival in 1770, when she married the future Louis XVI, until the October Days of 1789 and the royal family’s final departure for Paris, Marie-Antoinette spent nearly twenty years at Versailles. During this period, she transformed and redecorated several spaces, commissioning furniture and works of art, and freely expressed her personal taste—often at the forefront of fashion. From her grand official apartment to her private rooms in the palace, from the Petit Trianon to the Queen’s Hamlet, traces of Marie Antoinette are everywhere.
Marie Antoinette Style, the first exhibition dedicated to Marie-Antoinette ever held in the United Kingdom, is therefore an exceptional event. It is only natural that the collections of the Château de Versailles should feature prominently.

Exceptional Loans for a Landmark Exhibition

The loan of Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s celebrated painting, Marie-Antoinette à la rose, one of the most iconic works in the Versailles collections, is a highlight of the exhibition. Normally displayed at the Petit Trianon and only lent on the rarest of occasions, this 1783 canvas made a lasting mark on art history with its unprecedented depiction: an informal and almost intimate portrayal of a reigning queen, far removed from the pomp of official portraiture. This iconic work fixed the Queen’s image in the collective imagination well beyond France’s borders.
In total, some twenty works from Versailles will be on display for six months at the Victoria & Albert Museum: paintings, furniture, porcelain, jewellery, and even theatre accessories, evoking the Queen’s personal taste and her daily life at Versailles and Trianon.

the exhibition

Marie Antoinette Style
20 September 2025 – 22 March 2026
Galleries 38 & 39, V&A South Kensington

Marie Antoinette Style will be the UK’s first exhibition on the French queen Marie Antoinette. The exhibition will explore the origins and countless revivals of the style shaped by the most fashionable queen in history and consider afresh the legacy of a complex figure whose style, youth and notoriety have all contributed to her timeless appeal.
250 objects will go on display including historical items and contemporary fashion, alongside audio visual installations and immersive curation to explore how and why Marie Antoinette, the person, has provided a constant source of inspiration. Through theatrical staging and sensory experiences, the excessive, lavish and feminine style will come to life and set the stage for over 250 years of style reimagined again and again. A scent experience will
re-create scents of the court, and the perfume favoured by the Queen herself.
Highlights will include exceptionally rare personal items owned and worn by Marie Antoinette such as richly embellished fragments of court dress, the Queen’s own silk slippers, and jewels from her private collection, as well as contemporary clothing including couture pieces by designers such as Moschino, Dior, Chanel, Erdem and Vivienne Westwood. Costumes made for screen will also feature, such as for Sofia Coppola’s Oscar winning Marie Antoinette staring Kirsten Dunst, as well as shoes designed by Manolo Blahnik for the film.

About the V&A
The V&A is a family of museums dedicated to the power of creativity. Our mission is to champion design and creativity in all its forms, advance cultural knowledge, and inspire makers, creators and innovators everywhere.
V&A South Kensington is a world of extraordinary global creativity, with unmissable exhibitions, experiences and educational programmes for all. One of London’s most iconic buildings, it is home to national collections of art, design, fashion, photography and furniture to theatre, performance, architecture, and ceramics, as well as the UK’s National Art Library. It is a place where everyone can experience a story of creativity that spans 5,000 years and every creative discipline, which brings that story to life through programmes and activities for all ages and specialisms, and world-leading research and conservation.
www.vam.ac.uk

Visuals

Marie-Antoinette à la rose

Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun
1783
Huile sur toile
Château de Versailles
© Château de Versailles, Dist. RMN © C. Fouin

Marie-Antoinette, reine de France

D'après Elisabeth-Louise Vigée
Après 1785
Huile sur toile
Château de Versailles
© RMN-GP (Château de Versailles) © G. Blot

Coffre à bijoux de Marie-Antoinette, dauphine

Martin Carlin
1770
Ebène, buis et sycomore, marqueterie de bois de rose, porcelaine tendre de Sèvres, bronze ciselé et doré.
Château de Versailles
© RMN-GP (Château de Versailles) © G. Blot

Réplique du collier de la Reine

D'après Bassenge et Boehmer (joailliers)
1960-1963
Saphir blanc, perles, argent, soie
Château de Versailles
© Château de Versailles, Dist. RMN © C. Fouin