Louis-Philippe and Versailles

On 6 October 1789, when Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and the royal family were forced to leave Versailles, the Château was deserted and definitively ceased to be a royal residence. Heir to the Orléans family, Louis-Philippe has little common history with the Versailles of the Ancien Régime but shows his interest in the palace as soon as he acceded to the throne in 1830. The new king of the French is committed to transforming this monarchical building into a national monument dedicated "to all the glories of France". He imagines a museum open to all, with an educational scope, in which the paintings can be read like an image book. His goal was a real political manoeuvre: to reconcile the French, deeply divided, but above all to make his reign part of national history. The exhibition will retrace Louis-Philippe's taste and the king's direct involvement in the work that led to the inauguration of the Historical Galleries on June 10, 1837.
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