Royal portrait
In the north wing, first floor, it’s all about interior design and decoration from the 17th to the 18th century. Which was probably all the stuff left over from when it was a royal residence. Spruce it up a bit and presto, now it’s an exhibition!
The centrepiece of this room is a painting by François-Hubert Drouais, an extremely popular portrait painter in the latter part of Louis XV’s reign. If you didn’t have a Drouais portrait, then you weren’t anybody at court!
This is a portrait of Charles, younger brother to Louis XVI and XVIII, and his sister Marie Clotilde, made in 1763 when they were 6 and 4 respectively. He would later become Charles X, king of France from 1824 to 1830. The July 1830 Revolution, (not to be confused with the June 1832 Revolution as related in Les Misérables), led to his abdication and the election of a new king. Yeah, the 19th century was a wild time.
Marie Clotilde married Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia, thus becoming Queen of Sardinia.
Also I think the white vase-like dealie below the painting is some kind of fancy clock — it seems to have two rows of numbers and I could totally see them ticking away.
