Coronation Room

Find Napoleon holding the crown above Joséphine in the large Coronation painting. The painter Jacques-Louis David made two versions of the scene. The first went from Versailles to the Louvre in 1889. Versailles acquired this second version, painted between 1808 and 1822, in 1947 and installed it here the following year. The room’s Napoleonic display began under King Louis-Philippe in 1833. Earlier, the space had held a palace chapel, then a guard room serving the king and queen. Its scale made room for paintings too large for many other interiors. The porcelain column in the centre was commissioned by Napoleon to commemorate military victories and was made at Sèvres.