Musée de l'Histoire de France (Versailles)

Whereas it gradually faded in importance as a museum in the later 19th century, its lavish historicist decoration remains a major exemplar of the art of France's July Monarchy.

The design was coordinated by architect Frédéric Nepveu [fr], with assistance from Pierre Fontaine for the concept of zenithal lighting of the Galerie des Batailles.

By completing this work he has been a great king and an impartial philosopher, made a national monument from a monarchical one, put an immense idea in a gigantic edifice; installed the present in the past, 1789 face-to-face with 1688, the Emperor in the royal house, Napoleon in Louis XIV's home; in sum, bound that magnificent book known as French history into this magnificent binding known as Versailles.Further work was carried out to expand the museum under the Second French Empire in the 1850s and 1860s[1] and in the early years of the Third Republic.

In the late 19th century, however, Versailles curator Pierre de Nolhac put emphasis on the restoration of the pre-revolutionary state of the palace, and dismantled some of the museum's arrangements.

[1] These exhibition spaces are complemented by several prestige galleries: With over 6,000 paintings and 3,000 sculptures, the museum's collections are the premier source of iconography on French history.