Galerie des Glaces at Versailles

Galerie des Glaces at Versailles

Sébastien Leclerc I

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This work shows the interior of the Hall of Mirrors shortly after its painted ceiling celebrating Louis XIV's triumphs was completed by Charles Le Brun. The chandeliers, the tables placed between the arched-topped mirrors, and the flanking tubs for the orange trees were made of solid silver. All the silver furnishings at Versailles were melted down in 1789 in order to finance the king's military campaigns against the League of Augsburg.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Galerie des Glaces at VersaillesGalerie des Glaces at VersaillesGalerie des Glaces at VersaillesGalerie des Glaces at VersaillesGalerie des Glaces at Versailles

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.