When Marie-Antoinette grew tired of the court of King Louis XVI, she would retire to her private chambers in the palace of Versailles. She oversaw the decoration herself, imposing her own “audacious” style — to the irritation of Ange-Jacques Gabriel, the king’s First Architect.
Now the chambers are to reopen to the public after a seven-year restoration that officials say will give visitors an insight into Marie-Antoinette’s private life in the palace. “The restoration will enable one to rediscover the coherence and richness of an eminently feminine space,” the public body that runs the monument said in a statement.
On the lower floor is the Méridienne, a boudoir with an ottoman in an alcove where the Austrian-born queen of France would rest at midday. When she gave birth to an heir to the throne in 1781, ornate wooden panelling was added, with motifs celebrating the royal couple.
Next to the boudoir is her library, which housed her vast collection of books before they were moved to Paris after the 1789 Revolution. Adjacent is the Gold Room, which owes its name to motifs inspired by a nascent passion for Egypt at the end of the 18th century.
On the upper floor are a dining room, a boudoir and the billiard room, the game having become popular in the court under the reign of Louis XIV in the 17th century. The rooms were decorated with the finest canvases of the day, made in Jouy, notably one known as the Great Pineapple, renowned for its beauty.
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The chambers had been used by Marie Leszczynska, the wife of Louis XV, who was queen of France for more than 40 years until her death in 1768. When Marie-Antoinette arrived in Versailles two years later, she set about modernising them.
“Audacious, with a very sound taste, and conscious of her rank of Austrian archduchess and future queen of France, she very soon ordered works to embellish [the chambers],” the Palace of Versailles said. “Her demands and her impatience earned the disapproval of the king’s First Architect.”
The chambers of the queen, who was guillotined in 1793, nine months after her husband, will open to the public in June.
