Versailles - Paintings

I promised to present some of the paintings on walls and ceilings that we caught on photo during our tour through the halls and salons. However, the great crowd of people walking around and the light conditions give no positive effect on my images. In addition the artists is not always clear, so once more you have to go and see yourselves. It´s worth it.

This first painting covers one of the walls in Salon Hercules. It is painted by Paolo Veronese (also known as Paolo Cagliari) called "Feast in the House of Simon" or the Last Supper (454 x 874) from 1573.

The ceiling in the same Salon Hercules is another masterpiece. It is 480 sqm large (this photo is only a part), painted on canvas by Francois Le Moine in 1733 - 1736, finished only one year before the artist committed suicide.

This painting of the king you can find in his apartment where several other horse-portraits (by Jacques-Louise David) are on the walls too. 

I made a photo of this because I found the blue color fantastic and is the "real king-blue" composition.

The ceiling in the king´s bedchamber may be painted by Francois Le Moine (uncertain). He worked with the ceilings in several rooms in the king´s apartment, like the one in Salon Hercules.

The ceiling in the Queen´s bedchamber has more ornamentations, and more "female style" than the one in the king´s bedroom, but the center part is beautiful.
Hermes or Mercury and even Hermes son Pan (God of lust) maybe the one in the midle of the center painting.

In the Coronation Hall (which was a chapel during Louis XIV´s ruling) Emperor Napoleon wanted a painting of his coronation on the walls. The only person allowed to sit, was the pope.

Jacques-Louis David made the painting in 1806 (6.21 x 9.79)

Some sources writes that David also made the other paintings in the Coronation Hall, and this scene from a battle, is really spectacular.

Most famous I believe David is for the painting Death of Marat from 1793. Neoclassicism reached its peak by David.

(Our own Edvard Munch also made 2 versions of Marat´s death in 1907)

The greatest experience related to paintings at Versailles is gathered in the Hall of Battles. The history of France (at least battle victories) is covered on about 25 - 30 huge paintings. 

The painting in the middle of the hall-wall above looks like this if you stand alone in front of it.

This painting shows the battle against the Dutch that took place near the city of Cassel, 30 km south of Dunkirk in present-day France in April 11th 1677.

When I saw this painting I immediately thought about the post revolution France and the Republic.  It is made in another style than the usual paintings, so it must be from late 1800. But I don´t know.

The last painting is made by the most famous female painter in France of the 18 century; Louise Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun (1755 - 1842) and show Marie-Antoinette. Married to Louise XVI and lost her head October 16th 1793:  (At 12:15 pm, two and a half weeks before her thirty-eighth birthday, she was executed at the Place de la Révolution (present-day Place de la Concorde).)

Some photos of her "simple" house at Petit Trianon will come later.