Château de Versailles - Palace of Versailles_ Paintings Collection, The Masterpieces

Château de Versailles, Palace of Versailles
Paintings Collection, The Masterpieces

RIGAUD, Hyacinthe
Portrait of Louis XIV
1701
Oil on canvas, 279 x 190 cm
Château de Versailles, Versailles

RIGAUD, Hyacinthe
Portrait of Louis XIV (detail)
1701

VIGÉE-LEBRUN, Élisabeth
Marie-Antoinette with the Rose
1783

(detail)
1783

CALLET, Antoine-François
Portrait of Louis XVI
1778

Portrait of Louis XVI (detail)
1778

MARTIN, Pierre-Denis
View of the Château of Marly
1725

(detail)
1725

GROS, Antoine-Jean
The Battle of Abukir
1806

GROS, Antoine-Jean
The Battle of Abukir (detail)
1806

GUÉRIN, Pierre-Narcisse
Napoleon Pardoning the Rebels at
Cairo
1808

Napoleon Pardoning the Rebels at
Cairo (detail)
1808

GÉRARD, François
The Battle of Austerlitz, 2nd December 1805
1810

GÉRARD, François
(detail)
1810

DELACROIX, Eugène
The Battle of Taillebourg, 21st July 1242
1837
Oil on canvas, 489 × 554 cm

DELACROIX, Eugène
(detail)
1837
Oil on canvas, 489 × 554 cm

Château de Versailles
Paintings Collection, The Masterpieces
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DELACROIX, Eugène
When Louis-Philippe created the Musée de l'Histoire de France at Versailles, two paintings were commissioned from Delacroix: The Battle of Taillebourg and The Entry of the
Crusaders into Constantinople. For these vast canvases, Delacroix was obliged to open a studio, and train his own assistants. This time, the critics were completely won over.
The derring-do of Louis IX on his white charger riding down the English defences on the Taillebourg bridge and the famous capture of Constantinople (1204) acted as a balm
after the terrible defeat of Waterloo.
And yet Delacroix's method in these paintings is unchanged; again the implications of the event are focused in a single scene, again he shows the catastrophes of war and the
women delivered over to the victors. His goal is not to describe the event - though the details are carefully researched and the armour and standards historically correct - but to
make the spectator feel its emotional consequences. The inspiration flowing through these 'grandes machines' is no less personal and romantic than it was in The Barque of
Dante and The Death of Sardanapalus.

RIGAUD, Hyacinthe
Portrait of Louis XIV
This famous portrait is regarded as the very epitome of the absolutist ruler portrait. Yet it represents more than just power, pomp and circumstance. The sumptuous red and gold
drapery is not only a motif of dignity, but also creates a framework that echoes the drapes of the ornate, ermine-lined robe. The blue velvet brocade ornamented with the golden
fleurs-delis of the house of Bourbon is repeated in the upholstery of the chair, the cushion and the cloth draped over the table below it: the king quite clearly "sets the tone".
A monumental marble column on a high plinth is draped in such a way that it does not detract from the height of the figure. Louis is presented in an elegantly angled pose,
situated well above the standpoint of the spectator to whom he seems to turn his attention graciously, but without reducing the stability of his stance.
Rigaud's consummate mastery of portraiture is particularly evident in the way he depicts the king's facial expression: his distanced unapproachability are not founded in
Neoclassicist idealization, but in the candour of an ageing, impenetrable physiognomy. The lips are closed decisively and with a hint of irony, the eyes have a harsh, dark sheen,
while the narrow nose suggests intolerance. This is a ruler who is neither good nor evil, but beyond all moral categories.

On 31 May 1793, Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, the Queen’s protégée, was received into the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture along with her rival, Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. In
the same year, she exhibited for the first time in the Salon. Vigée-Le Brun presented notably a new portrait of the Queen wearing the “gaulle” or “blouse dress”.
Adapted to Parisian fashion by the dressmaker Rose Bertin, this muslin dress was the Queen’s favourite one during her stays at the Petit Trianon, away from the court. The visitors of
the Salon were shocked by this portrait: in their view the Queen was not dressed as befitted her rank. So the painting was quickly withdrawn.
Vigée-Le Brun then quickly painted a second portrait to be exhibited before the end of the Salon. Repeating the pose of the first painting, she dressed the Queen this time in a classic
blue-grey silk dress, marking the implicit support of Marie-Antoinette for the silk-weavers of Lyon. The presentation of this second portrait was a big success. Several replicas of it
were made, including in the Palace of Versailles.
Historique : réplique de l'original disparu qui remplaça, au salon de 1783, le portrait en gaule, 1784 ; collection Louis XVI ; entré à Versailles sous Louis-Philippe ; exposé dans
l'attique Nord, avant 1877 exposé Galerie basse, 1902 ; mentionné en réserves, 7 septembre 1964 ; exposé dans la chambre du capitaine des gardes au rez-de-chaussée de la cour de
marbre, juin 1965 ; exposé dans la pièce de service de l'appartement de la reine au rez-de-chaussée de la cour de marbre, 1988 ; exposé dans l'antichambre du Petit Trianon, 3 mars
1992 ; mis en réserve, 10 mars 2003 ; accroché dans l'antichambre du Petit Trianon, 9 juillet 2008

Portrait of Louis XVI
In May 1774 Louis XV died of smallpox at the age of sixty-four, and was succeeded by his twenty-year-old grandson, Louis Augustus, who became Louis XVI.
This is the largest portrait of Louis XVI in Versailles. This king is much less represented in the collections than Louis XIV and Louis XV, notably for the full-length portraits.

Martin's painting represents a view of the chateau of Marly as seen from the Watering Trough.
The royal château was the third element in the royal lifestyle: Versailles for business, the Trianon for pleasure, and Marly for a privacy that did not exclude
privileged guests. In each case architecture eloquently reflected function. Marly constituted two rows of six pavilions flanking parterres, an ornamental lake, and
gently sloping groves. The large central pavilion was the home of the king.
Marly was destroyed during the Revolution, the building materials were sold to merchants during the reign of Napoleon I.

GROS, Antoine-Jean
The Battle of Abukir
The Battle of Abukir was a battle in which Napoleon Bonaparte defeated Seid Mustafa Pasha's Ottoman army on 25 July 1799, during the French campaign in Egypt.
Seid Mustafa Pasha was an experienced commander who had fought against the Russians. He knew that cavalry charges against the French squares was futile. So, he sought to
avoid them by fortifying his beachhead with two defensive lines. From this beachhead Mustafa could carry out the invasion of Egypt. However, Napoleon immediately saw the flaw in
the tactic as it meant that the Turks had nowhere to run if routed.[7]
The French attacked the Ottoman positions and quickly broke through the first defensive line before it was fully completed. The second line, however, proved tougher to defeat and
the French withdrew for a while. At this point, cavalry general Murat saw his opportunity and attacked with his cavalry, quickly routing the exposed Turks.
Murat's charge was so rapid that he burst inside Mustafa's tent and captured the Turkish commander, severing two of the Turk's fingers with his sabre. In return, Mustafa shot
Murat in the jaw. Immediately, Murat was operated on and resumed his duties the next day.
The Turkish army fled in panic. Some Ottomans drowned trying to swim to the British ships two miles away from shore, while others fled to Abukir castle, but they surrendered
shortly thereafter. The Turks suffered about 8,000 casualties and the French only 1,000.
News of the victory reached France before Napoleon arrived in October and this made him even more popular, an important asset considering the troubles brewing in the French
Directory. This battle temporarily secured France's control over Egypt.
Gros was the forerunner of the later Romantic school, but he forced himself to sustain David's heritage and counter the Romantics, although he had himself inspired them. The
comparison of works depicting a large number of figures by David (e.g. The Intervention of the Sabine Women), by Delacroix (e.g. The Massacre of Chios) and by Gros' The Battle of
Abukir demonstrates that Gros led the Romantic movement.

GÉRARD, François
Commissioned as a commemoration of the Grande Armée's most famous battle and shown at the Salon of 1810, this gigantic painting was originally destined for the ceiling of
the hall in which the Conseil d'Etat met. It shows the solemn moment of victory – General Rapp presents to an Olympian Napoleon the standards taken from the enemy.
Though broad and balanced, the composition is nevertheless complicated, not to say overloaded, with Gérard here showing his limits as a history painter. That being said, the
“Sun of Austerlitz” irradiates the entire work with a almost supernatural brilliance which perfectly matches the symbolic weight attached to the date, 2 December, as regards
the Napoleonic epic.

Napoleon Pardoning the Rebels at Cairo
Guérin's Napoleon Pardoning the Rebels at Cairo has a grain of truth, since Napoleon had shown clemency to the Mamluk leaders of the 1798 rising - but only after the slaughter
of most of the insurgents. Guérin burnishes Napoleon's myth subtly, placing his hero to the rear and rather dwarfed by those he has pardoned, in a sort of inverted modesty. If the
rebels are allowed dignity in defeat, it is to emphasize the magnanimity of the victor.

Château de Versailles
The Château de Versailles, which has been on UNESCO's World Heritage List for 30 years, is one of the most
beautiful achievements of 18th-century French art. The site began as Louis XIII's hunting lodge before his son Louis
XIV transformed and expanded it, moving the court and government of France to Versailles in 1682. Each of the three
French kings who lived there until the French Revolution added improvements to make it more beautiful.
The château lost its standing as the official seat of power in 1789 but acquired a new role in the 19th century as the
Museum of the History of France, which was founded at the behest of Louis-Philippe, who ascended to the throne in
1830. That is when many of the château's rooms were taken over to house the new collections, which were added to
until the early 20th century, tracing milestones in French history.
In 1661, Louis XIV commissioned André Le Nôtre with the design and laying out of the gardens of Versailles which, in
his view, were just as important as the Château. The works were undertaken at the same time as those for the palace
and took forty years to complete.

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Château de Versailles - Palace of Versailles_ Paintings Collection, The Masterpieces