Sketches for the Hall of Mirrors

Two busts sit at the center of this room. The one with the fuller head of hair is Jules Hardouin-Mansart, who designed the Hall of Mirrors; beside him is Charles Le Brun, who was responsible for its ceiling paintings. The Hall of Mirrors is widely considered the most spectacular room in all of Versailles, and more than 110 artists worked on it beyond these two. The hall itself runs about 70 meters long — roughly the length of a full elementary school playground — and that entire space is crowned by a sweeping ceiling painting. The paintings displayed in this room are the preparatory sketches made in the process of creating that ceiling. Head upstairs, and you'll see the Hall of Mirrors itself.