One recent Friday evening my husband and I went to the Louvre after work. We wanted to see the spectacular new Louis XIV to Louis XVI galleries located in the Sully wing on the first floor in the Department of Decorative Arts.
This installation is a lavish collection of interior design, fine art, and decorative arts, produced by period French manufacturers, and craftsmen. The display gives visitors a real insight into lifestyle of the French Aristocracy before the French Revolution, when most of the objects were dispersed. It has been a major undertaking to track down these works of art and to faithfully recreate these period rooms.
Also on display are diminutive jewels, portrait miniatures, and luscious ornamented gold snuffboxes, as well as the exquisite nautical and scientific Instruments.
We lingered in the rooms... it felt like a fabulous film set ... except it's real. Panels made of hand carved gilt boiserie, rooms decorated with paintings, tapestries, silks, clocks, porcelain and sumptuous brocades. I could easily imagine Marie Antoinette walking through the door.
Of particular interest to me is the cupola painted in 1774 by Antoine Francoise Callet (official portraitist to Louis XVI). In 1941, when the Nazis decided the best art was "Mein mein mein" they cut the cupola into 13 pieces and took it home to the father land. It was recovered in Berlin in 1947, and has been meticulously restored.
Official Description courtesy of the Louvre
“Three main chronological and stylistic sequences make up the visitor trail:
- 1660–1725: Louis XIV’s personal reign and the Régence
- 1725–55: development of the rococo style
- 1755–90: return to classicism and the reign of Louis XVI.
Particular care has been taken in refurbishing period rooms in order to provide a clearer understanding of this luxurious art of living. This approach to exhibition design, adopted by some history museums in the nineteenth century, enables the reconstruction of the finest inventions of interior decorators and master craftsmen in their natural setting, such as the salons and library of the Villemaré residence, the drawing room of the Château d’Abondant, and the ceremonial bedchamber of the Hôtel de Chevreuse.”
The new galleries are exquisite and well worth a visit.
Don't forget, Wednesdays and Fridays the Louvre is open until 9:45 PM.
Need a private guide? Just email us and we'll arrange it.
Official Description courtesy of the Louvre
“Three main chronological and stylistic sequences make up the visitor trail:
- 1660–1725: Louis XIV’s personal reign and the Régence
- 1725–55: development of the rococo style
- 1755–90: return to classicism and the reign of Louis XVI.
Particular care has been taken in refurbishing period rooms in order to provide a clearer understanding of this luxurious art of living. This approach to exhibition design, adopted by some history museums in the nineteenth century, enables the reconstruction of the finest inventions of interior decorators and master craftsmen in their natural setting, such as the salons and library of the Villemaré residence, the drawing room of the Château d’Abondant, and the ceremonial bedchamber of the Hôtel de Chevreuse.”
The new galleries are exquisite and well worth a visit.
Don't forget, Wednesdays and Fridays the Louvre is open until 9:45 PM.
Need a private guide? Just email us and we'll arrange it.