International studio (59.1916)

Charles F. Bittinger-—Versailles Interiors

architects, and hydraulic engineers, and builded
his royal palace at Versailles, its park and its
marvellous fountains. Thither, in 1682, he came
with his court to live. For the next hundred years
and more, the story of Versailles is the history of
France.
In the building of the palace were formulated
for all time those styles of furniture and decora-
tion designated by the
names of three kings of
France. In decorating and
furnishing Louis-Quatorze,
Louis-Quinze and Louis-
Seize still are standard
styles. Versailles abruptly
ceased to be a place of
royal habitation when, in
1789, borne upon a wave of
the French Revolution, the
women of Paris swept down
upon and ravaged the pal¬
ace, carrying away Louis
XVI to the Tuileries and
eventually to the guillotine.
To-day it serves as an his¬
torical museum, restored
and converted thereunto by
Louis Phillippe, "Citizen
King.”
The pillars at entrance of
the Cour d’Honneur visual¬
ize the victories of France
under Louis XIV. The
royal chapel has a ceiling
by Coypel. Vernet’s battle
pictures are in the Galerie de
Constantine. The paintings
in the Galerie des Glaces
are Charles Lebrun’s. The
Room of the Crusaders is
filled with splendid modern
paintings. The Galerie des
Batailles, 130 feet long, con¬
tains many battle pieces by famous French paint-
ers. In the bedchamber of Louis XIV is the
gorgeous bed upon which the Grand Monarch
died.
Near by are the Petits Appartements, in-
cluding the bedchamber where Louis XV passed
away, and the famous antechamber where,
under the CEil de Boeuf, the gentlemen of the
Court, awaited the royal summons. The room

of the Jeu de Paume contains a museum of the
Revolution in remembrance of the meeting there
of the first States General. The career of Na-
poleon may be reviewed in the Galerie de 1’Em-
pire. Louis XIV built Grand Trianon for Mme.
de Maintenon. Petit Trianon, Louis XV built for
Mme. du Barry. The park is a monument toLe
Norte, whose genius Louis XIV recognized, and

who also planned the Kensington Gardens and
laid out the grounds of the Vatican.
To Versailles, then, builded in 1661 by Louis
XIV, came, in 1906, Charles F. Bittinger, born,
as we have said, in Washington, D. C. Bit-
tinger, an art student in Paris, had worked profit-
ably under Gerome and Laurens, and could draw
and paint well. Moreover he is by nature extraor-
dinarily sensitive to beauty. These two facts


CEIL DE BCEUF, VERSAILLES BY CHARLES F. BITTINGER

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