The Coronation Room at the Palace of Versailles was once the palace chapel, and later the Great Guards Room. In 1833 it became a room devoted to the glory of Napoleon Bonaparte. It contains several works of art commissioned by Napoleon to glorify himself.
In the center of the room is the Austerlitz Column made by the Sèvres Royal Porcelain Manufactory in 1807 to commemorate Napoleon’s victories in the ‘German Campaign’ of 1805.
One of the three enormous paintings in the room is The Coronation by Jacques-Louis David. Two months before his own coronation in 1804, Napoleon told the painter he would be in charge of immortalizing him. David attended the ceremony where, after being anointed by the Pope, Napoleon crowned Josephine, then himself, as Empress and Emperor of the French. The original painting is now in the Louvre. The artist was allowed to paint a replica for a group of American businessmen who exhibited it in cities across the United States and Europe throughout the 19th century. In 1947, Versailles bought that copy from a private collector in England and it is now in this room.
Photos by Charles Reeza
