First Empire to July Monarchy (1800–1850)
What happened to the art in the "Muséum national" and the "Musée spécial de l'École française"?
Palace of Versailles
First Empire to July Monarchy (1800–1850). With the advent of Napoléon and the First Empire, the status of Versailles changed again. Paintings and other art work that had previously been assigned to the "Muséum national" and the "Musée spécial de l'École française" were systematically dispersed to other locations and eventually the museum was closed. In accordance with the provisions of the 1804 Constitution, Versailles was designated as the Imperial palace located in the Department of the Seine-et-Oise. The Bourbon Restoration saw little activity at Versailles. Areas of the gardens were replanted but no significant restoration or modifications of the interiors were undertaken, despite the fact that Louis XVIII would often visit the palace and walk through the vacant rooms (Manse, 2004; Thompson, 2006). Charles X chose the Tuileries Palace over Versailles and rarely visited his former home (Castelot, 2001). With the Revolution of 1830 and the establishment of the July Monarchy, the status of Versailles changed. In March 1832, the "Loi de la Liste civile" was promulgated, which designated Versailles as a crown dependency. Like Napoléon before him, Louis-Philippe chose to live at the Grand Trianon; however, unlike Napoléon, Louis-Philippe did have a grand design for Versailles. In 1833, Louis-Philippe proposed the establishment of a museum dedicated to “all the glories of France,” which included the Orléans dynasty and the Revolution of 1830 that had put him on the throne of France. For the next decade, under the direction of Eugène-Charles-Frédéric Nepveu and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine, the château underwent major alterations (Constans, 1985; 1987; Mauguin, 1937; Verlet, 1985). The museum was officially inaugurated on 10 June 1837 as part of the festivities that surrounded the marriage of the Prince royal, Ferdinand-Philippe d'Orléans with princess Hélène of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and represented one of the most ambitious and costly undertakings of Louis-Philippe's reign. Over, the emperor at the king's home – Napoléon at Louis XIV's; in a word, it is having given to this magnificent book that is called French history this magnificent binding that is called Versailles" (Victor Hugo). The "aile du Midi," was given over to the "galerie des Balles", which necessitated the demolition of most of the apartments of the Princes of the Blood who lived in this part of the palace during the Ancien Régime. The "galerie des Batailles" was an epigone of the "Grande galerie" of the Louvre Palace and was intended to glorify French military history from the Battle of Tolbiac (traditionally dated 495) to the Battle of Wagram (5–6 July 1809). While a number of the paintings displayed in the "galerie des Batailles" were of questionable quality, a few masterpieces, such as the "Battle of Taillebourg" by Eugène Delacroix, were displayed here. Part of the "aile du Nord" was converted for the "Salle des Croisades", a room dedicated to famous knights of the Crusades and decorated with their names and coats of arms. The apartments of the dauphin and the dauphine as well as those of Louis XV's daughters on the ground floor of the "corps de logis" were transformed into portrait galleries. To accommodate the displays, some of the "boiseries" were removed and either put into storage or sold. During the Prussian occupation of the palace in 1871, the "boiseries" in storage were burned as firewood (Constans, 1985; 1987; Mauguin, 1937; Verlet,1985).