Petit Appartement Du Roi - Louis XVI

Louis XVI

With the exception of reclaiming part of the apartment of Madame Adélaïde, Louis XVI chose to retain the décor of the petit appartement du roi as his grandfather had left it. The arrière cabinet of Louis XV was rechristened cabinet des dépêches (1789 plan #8); however, Louis XVI continued to use the room as day-to-day workroom as his grandfather had (Rogister, 1993).

The pièce de la vaisselle d'or (1789 plan #9) – originally the premier salon de la petite galerie – formed part of the appartement de Madame Adélaïde. Under Louis XVI, the pièce de la vaisselle d’or was where the king kept his collection of rare porcelains and curiosities, many received as diplomatic gifts (Verlet 1985, p. 526)

The small room north and behind the pièce de la vaisselle d'or is the cabinet de la cassette du roi (1789 plan #10). This room was converted into a bathroom for Louis XV around 1769. Louis XVI used the room – allegedly – as a place where he could maintain his personal financial accounts (Verlet 1985, p. 526). The paneling dates from the remodeling for Louis XV; however, Louis XVI ordered a total regilding of the room in 1784 (Verlet 1985, p. 526). When Pierre de Nolhac assumed the directorship of the museum of Versailles, he discovered that this room was being used as a broom closet by the janitorial staff. This discovery was the impetus that compelled Nolhac to begin exhaustive research on the subject of the history of Versailles (Nolhac, 1937).

The bibliothèque de Louis XVI (1789 plan #11) located directly east of the pièce de la vaisselle d'or occupies the space that was the chambre de Madame Adélaïde (which Louis XV rechristened salon d’assemblée in 1769) and previously the petite galerie. In 1774, construction on the library began with the decoration being executed by the workshop of the Rousseau brothers, who had previously worked on the paneling of the cabinet de la cassette du roi and on part of the sculptural decorations of the Opéra (Verlet 1985, p. 513). This room represents not only the personal taste of Louis XVI it also stands as one of the finest examples of the style Louis XVI decorative style.

The room located just to the east of the bibliothèque de Louis XVI is the salle à manger aux salles neuves (1789 plan #12). This room, once the deuxième salon de la petite galerie and once one of the rooms of Madame Adélaïde, was remodeled into a dining room for Louis XV in 1769. The paneling by Jacques Verberckt dates from the 1769 redecoration of Louis XV and the present blue upholstery, draperies, and hunting scenes by Jean-Baptiste Oudry date from 1774 when Louis XVI redecorated the room (Baulez, 1976; Verlet 1985, p. 527). The room was also known as the salle des porcelains on account of the annual display of the production of the Sèvres factory that was arranged in this room during Christmas (Baulez, 1976).

The pièce des buffets or salle du billard (1789 plan #13) occupies area that had once been the landing of the escalier des ambassadeurs. During dinners, the billiard table would be covered with a wooden plank on which a buffet would be dressed for the king’s guests (Verlet 1985, p. 527). The room originally had a window opening onto the cave du roi (1789 plan III), the courtyard that was created when the escalier des ambassadeurs was destroyed in 1752.

Occupying the site of the cabinet des médailles of Louis XIV is the cabinet des jeux (1789 plan #14) of Louis XVI. Upon the return of Louis XV and the court to Versailles, there had been a systematic rearrangement of the collections of Louis XIV that had been housed in the petite appartement du roi, particularly the items kept in the Louis XIV's cabinet des médailles. The collection was either reorganized in other rooms of the petit appartement du roi or sent to the bibliothèque du roi in Paris. With the destruction of the escalier des ambassadeurs in 1752 and the subsequent construction of the apartment for Madame Adélaïde, the cabinet des médailles of Louis XIV was completely transformed into an antichambre for Madame Adélaïde. Dating from 1775, the room was redecorated in 1785 during the construction of a theater next to the salon d’Hercule, Louis XVI decided to remodel this room as a game room (Verlet 1985, p. 528). The salle à manger aux salles neuves, salle du billiard and the cabinet des jeux were used for the intimate dinner parties given by Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette for their friends and selected members of the royal family.