Louis XV and Versailles: Selective patrimony in the French Third Republic, Pierre de Nolhac, and the formation of a scholarly tradition

Abstract

The vast contributions made by Louis XV at Versailles are some of the finest examples of painting, sculpture, architecture and decorative arts produced during the 18th century. Oddly, the Appartement Prive, the Petit Appartements, and the Opera, among other examples, have been the most overlooked, criticized, and for a time denigrated and condemned achievements made at Versailles. This state of affairs prompted a historiographical examination of 18th-century Versailles to understand, odd and erroneous interpretations. In the process of analyzing and categorizing the literature and scholarship on 18th-century Versailles, certain patterns of interpretation, many of them contradictory and inconsistent, appeared. The thrust of this thesis is to map-out these patterns--particularly from the period of 1870-1930 when a remarkable scholarly and physical renewal was taking place at Versailles--and to discover and understand the underlying ideological motivations for these shifting patterns of interpretation.