Paris Art Studies – The Paris of Louis XIV
Place des Victoires –
1685-86 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart
Built at the initiative of
the Duc de Feuillade as a monumental décor for of a central monument in honor of Louis XIV by Martin
Desjardins destroyed at the French Revolution and replaced by the current
equestrian statue of Louis XIV by Bosio in 1828.
Palais Royal:
1624 – The Hôtel de Rambouillet is purchased by the future Cardinal Richelieu, named prime
minister of Louis XIII, so as to be close to his master’s residence in the
Louvre.
1628-35 – Massive extensions of the original building by the architect
Jacques Lemercier with the addition
of a courtyard and wings at the back – New complex turns into a “palace” called
the “Palais Cardinal.” On the west side
of the back courtyard is the famous “galerie des homes illustres” with 25
portraits of great figures of recent French history by Vouet and Champaigne.
1633 – The demolition of the old Charles V wall behind his palace
enables the cardinal to appropriate more land for a large garden.
1636 – Richelieu leaves the palace in his will to the King.
1639-42 – Erection of the largest theater in Paris on the east side of
the complex, which will later become an opera.
1642 – Erection of a library on the west side of the palace
(perpendicular to rue de Richelieu and never finished).
1643 – After the death of the Cardinal and Louis XIII the widowed Queen Anne of Austria and Regent of the
kingdom moves into the Palais Royal with her two young sons Louis XIV and Philippe d’Anjou (later d’Orléans). The palace is renamed “Palais Royal”.
1651 – After the civil war of the Fronde the royal family move back to
the Louvre which is deemed more secure. The palace is given to Henriette de
France, daughter of Henri IV and exiled widow of the English King Charles I.
1661 – Henriette gives up palace to her daughter Henriette d’Angleterre
who has just married Louis XIV’s younger brother Philippe d’Orléans. The royal
academy of art moves into Richelieu’s intended library wing until 1692.
1671 – Having lost his first wife in 1670, Philippe remarries Charlotte
Elisabeth of Bavaria Princess Palatine.
1692 – Louis XIV overturns Richelieu’s will and gives the palace as full
private property to his brother
Philippe d’Orléans. This gift is to sugar the pill for obliging his brother’s
son, Philippe duc de Chartres, to marry the Kings’ illegitimate daughter Mlle
de Blois.
1700 - A new gallery is built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart on the site of
Richelieu’s library, beginning of a long campaign of embellishments continued
through the 18th century.
1708-23 – Oppenord redecorates the Orléans apartments in the new Rococo
style. The new gallery is painted by Coypel with a sequence of paintings
illustrating the story of Aeneas.
1715 – Philippe Duc d’Orléans, nephew of Louis XIV, becomes Regent of the kingdom at the death of
the great King, governing in lieu of the 5-year old Louis XV. He stays in the
Palais Royal and moves the little king from Versailles to the Tuileries palace
in Paris.
1723 – At the Regent’s death the palace is inherited by his son also
named Philippe. Louis XV and the court return to Versailles.
1741 – The third duke d’Orléans gives up his palace to his son
Louis-Philippe and retires to an abbey.
1750-52 – Renovations of the eastern wings and service courtyards by Contant d’Ivry. The west wing receives
a new and revolutionary classical décor pre-figuring the future “style Louis
XVI”.
1763 – The old theater, now an opera burns down. This enables Contant
d’Ivry to regularize the fronts on rue St Honoré and the front courtyard and
build a new monumental staircase. A new opera is built by Moreau on the east
side, inaugurated in 1780 but consumed again completely by fire in 1781.
1780 – The heir of the duke, Louis Philippe Joseph Duc de Chartres, obtains permission from King Louis XVI to
undertake on the periphery of the garden a lucrative real estate development combining residential and commercial
properties.
1781-84 – Erection of new houses with an open arcade sheltering shops
and coffee houses on the west, north and east sides of the garden built by Victor Louis in an ornate neoclassical
style. The neighbors who lose their views on to the garden are furious.
1786-90 – Building of a new theater by Victor Louis on the west side of
the palace (on site of current Comédie française) to replace the burned opera.
1793 – During the Revolution, Philippe d’Orléans is guillotined despite
his revolutionary zeal (renaming himself Philippe “Egalité” and voting the
death sentence of his cousin Louis XVI). The palace becomes national property.
1799 – Under the Consulate the palace is used to house, the Tribunat
(until 1807), a legislative institution, for whose meetings an amphitheatre is
built in 1801. Many other projects follow but none is realized under Napoleon
in the last years of the Empire.
1814 - Under the Restoration of the Bourbons the palace is given back by
Louis XVIII to the Orléans family. The new duke, Louis-Philippe moves in with his sister Adelaïde.
1817-31 – Louis-Philippe buys back portions of the palace sold during
the Revolution and undertakes a general renovation of the buildings carried out
by the architect Fontaine. Having become King after the revolution of 1830 he
moves across the street to the Tuileries palace.
1848 – After the revolution which overthrows Louis-Philippe the palace
is again nationalized.
1850-52 – Under the Second Republic, The Palais Royal houses the annual
art exhibition called the Salon moved here from the Louvre.
1852 – After the proclamation of the Second Empire, the new ruler,
Napoleon III, uses the palace to house members of the Bonaparte family, notably
his uncle Jerome, only surviving brother of Napoleon I.
1870-today – After the fall of the Second Empire the palace is
re-nationalized under the Third Republic and will house thereafter various
state institutions including the Council of State which is still there today.
The latest, is the Ministry of Culture, created in 1974, which occupies the
Valois (east wing) of the palace. Jack
Lang minister of Culture under the socialist president François Mitterrand
will commission in 1985 the truncated black and white columns that currently
occupy the back courtyard, from the French minimalist artist Daniel Buren.
Saint
Roch – 1653-1740, Jacques Lemercier, Jules Hardouin-Mansart
and Robert de Cotte
296, rue Saint
Honoré 75001
Most fashionable church of western Paris under Louis XIV and in the 18th
century. The playwright Corneille, the painter Mignard, the gardener Le Nôtre
and the preacher Bossuet are buried there.
Napoleon fired with canon at royalist rebels from the church steps in
1795.
Place Vendôme (Louis le
Grand) – 1698-1720 Jules Hardouin-Mansart
Built on the site of the hotel de Vendôme, this monumental classical
square was a décor for the equestrian statue of Louis XIV in the center
destroyed during the French Revolution. The original project (1685) promoted by
Louis XIV’s new finance minister Louvois, intended to house royal institutions
like a royal library, a mint, an ambassadors’ residence and a house for the
royal academies. This was in the end scrapped because of lack of money and the
square was transformed to luxury housing built by private developers. In the 18th
century it became the favorite abode for financiers and the “nouveaux riches”.
The current bronze column (1806-10 by Gondoin and Lepère) was originally
erected by Napoleon to celebrate his victory at Austerlitz. Brought down during
the Paris Commune in 1871 it was rebuilt in 1873.
