In
the Castle of Compiegne, the exhibition Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette
propose to make discover which was the taste of the king in French
decorative art. An enthralling invitation to traverse this exceptional
monument in the middle of an accessible city.
The huge park with trees more than
centenaries take irresistible colors of autumn lets discover the
frontage of a great purity of the castle, built by Ange Jacques
Gabriel. All around this captivating monument, the city kept XVIIIe
century which in inspired town planning, its narrow streets, its
private mansions and a great elegance. One walks in a small pedestrian
sector very animated with commercial arteries, tearoom intimates and
bookshop of charm. All is calm, resting, like if the close forest,
whose rides seem to prolong the streets, insufflated an alleviating
air. We understand better why Compiegne made beat the heart
of all the French sovereigns since Louis XV.
The exhibition is installed on the first floor of the castle and pays
homage to the interest of the king for this castle, of which he will
complete the construction started with Louis XV. It is also a question
of evoking the taste of the monarch for French, prone decorative arts
seldom treated at this sovereign whose history retains especially the
tragedy destiny or leaning it for the iron work! As Emmanuel Starcky
underlines it, director of the national Museums of Compiegne, “Louis
XVI is important for the castle”. In testify, as of the entry in the
exhibition, the crossed out plans of origin of the hand even of the
king.
They precede in a precise order the presentation by an element
dominating by the decoration by each principal part of the castle that
the king orders. To start with its room to lay down which one found
fabric of origin, one flowered pastoral surprising which translates its
slope for nature.
For this exhibition in Compiegne, one brought from Versailles,
Fontainebleau or the reserves of the State-owned furniture : a
shepherdess of Boulard, the convenient ones of Benneman, the splendid
silk panels which decorated the Cabinet of the Council and which had
not been shown with the public since 1974! Still let us quote, coming
from Vienna, the admirable bust of the dauphine Marie-Antoinette,
realized in Compiegne by Jean-baptiste Lemoine. The museography
privileges the scarcity. Few parts but they are exceptional. With the
wire of the rooms one discovers the taste of the king for simplicity
and the neo-classicism, in rupture with the reign of gilding. In this
castle which one more generally associates the reign of Napoleon III,
rather than with that of Louis XVI, some will be astonished by the
topic of this exposure which comes somewhat to hustle the ambitions
posted by its successive conservatives to make of Compiegne the large
French museum of the Second Empire. It would be to forget the
admiration which carried the Eugenie empress to Marie-Antoinette,
become under the wife of Napoleon
III “the Louis XVI-Empress”! And it is not the least interest of this
exhibition, - which also makes it possible to visit the superb imperial
apartments -, to underline this continuity and this diversity which
make the richness of Compiegne.
Until the 29 janv. ouv. 10
a.m. tlj
to 6 p.m. sf mar. Entry: expo + castle, 6,20 €, TR: 4,70 €.
Tourism Office : 03 44 40 01 00.
