The Sun King's Carpets at the Grand Palais

February 2 2026

Video: GrandPalais

Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:

The Grand Palais in Paris have just opened a rather magnificent looking exhibition featuring monumental carpets woven at the Savonnerie Manufactory for the Grand Gallery of the Louvre.

According to their website:

In 1668, as King Louis XIV prepared to make the Louvre his royal residence, he entrusted his First Painter, Charles Le Brun, with a bold and magnificent commission: the creation of 92 carpets, woven at the Savonnerie Manufactory, to adorn the floor of the palace’s most majestic gallery. Each carpet, nine meters wide, was meant to form a spectacular decorative ensemble, one of the most ambitious ever conceived for a royal palace.

Fate, however, took a different course. Never installed in the Louvre, these treasures crossed the centuries through revolutions, sales, and dispersals. Today, 41 original carpets remain in the collections of the National Manufactories, 33 of which are complete.

Brought together for the first time beneath the glass roof of the Grand Palais, alongside a carpet designed for the Galerie d’Apollon, they offer a display of rare magnificence. A unique and historic event, lasting just one week, inviting visitors to discover these jewels of French heritage in a setting worthy of their splendor.

The exhibition only runs for a week, so you have until the 8th February to catch it!

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