In the vast edifice Louis Philippe created a pictorial record that embraced not only the great battles from the beginning of the monarchy down to his own day, but the chief incidents that distinguished the reigns of Louis XIV, XV and XVI; the victories of the Republic; the campaigns of Napoleon; the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X; the Revolution of 1830, and the reign of Louis Philippe.  The kings of France, the members of their families and immediate entourage, great French warriors, statesmen, artists, men of letters and science are depicted on canvases that line the immense halls of Versailles.  The Gallery of Warriors was arranged by Louis Philippe in that part of the palace formerly occupied by Madame de Montespan.  The Gallery of Napoleon, created by removing the partition from a dozen rooms belonging to various members of the royal family, presents a complete history of the Emperor’s life.  More than a hundred apartments, large and small, were obliterated to make room for the galleries of portraits—­a most engrossing exhibition to students of French history.  Carlyle said, “I have found that the Portrait was a small lighted candle by which the Biographies could for the first time be read, and some human interpretation be made of them.”

Unfortunately a considerable number of paintings hung in the new museum suffered in quality through the desire of Louis Philippe to bring his achievement to immediate completion.  He gave commissions right and left, always with the stipulation that the artists make haste.  But many canvases of high merit, artistically and historically, still grace the walls of these galleries.

Portraits of the four unmarried daughters of Louis XV have been appropriately arranged by the present curator of Versailles, Monsieur de Nolhac, in the apartments on the ground floor where Mesdames passed most of their dull, insignificant lives.  Nattier made flattering representations of all of them, sometimes in the costume of mythological characters.  Both Nattier and the great La Tour portrayed Marie Leczinska, the mother of Louis XV’s ten children.  Nattier’s likeness shows a smiling, matronly lady with sweet-tempered brown eyes, seated in a chair, the face softened by a frill and a black lace scarf.  Many of the portraits at Versailles painted by Charles Lebrun, Madame Vigee Lebrun, Jean-Baptiste and Michel Vanloo, Boucher, Largilliere, Pierre Mignard, Rigaud, are familiar to us through frequent reproduction.

In the years following the inauguration of the National Museum, Versailles was once again the scene of ostentatious fetes in the halls, gardens and splendid Opera House.  When Louis Napoleon succeeded Louis Philippe as head of the French nation, he came to Versailles with his bride of three days, the beautiful Eugenie, to see the portraits of Marie Antoinette, for whom the young Empress cherished a special admiration.