The King’s horses

You had to "be there", you had to have your name on the guest list to show that you were in the king’s favour. Louis XIV invited only his friends to Marly, at least at first. Later, invitations to the château became a reward for good servants, the harbinger of political and administrative advancement. Louis XV kept the habit of drawing up lists of hand-picked guests, but he also opened the palace to visitors for a day: those who did not have the sesame to stay in the pavilions, but who obtained permission to enter the king’s salon, were nicknamed "les salonistes", or, more mockingly, "les polissons".
Saint-Simon described Marly as a "den of snakes, carrion, toads and frogs". But if the château was a den of courtiers and other crawling beasts, it was also a paradise for horses, both real and mythological, pampered, butchered, painted and sculpted: the Spanish genet was favoured by Louis XIV and the English thoroughbred by Louis XV, Pegasus appeared in the marble and behind the bushes in the park, while the horses in Apollo’s chariot galloped across the pediments of the château.

1. Herman Van Loon (c. 1650- c. 1701)
and Nicolas de Fer (1646-1720)
General Plan of Marly, 1705
Etching, watercolour and gouache highlights - 38.5 x 27 cm
Le Pecq, private collection
Photo: bbsg

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The Musée du Domaine Royal de Marly, formerly a museum and promenade, reopened in 2020. A flood in 2016 led to its closure and major renovation work. Karen Chastagnol, who has been in charge of the museum since 2022, is proposing an exhibition on the horse to coincide with the Olympic Games, echoing the exhibitions at Versailles ("Horses in Majesty, at the Heart of a Civilisation", Château de Versailles, 2 July to 3 November) and Écouen ("On Horseback: Equestrian Portraiture in Renaissance France", Château d’Écouen Musée national de la Renaissance, 16 October 2024 to 27 January 2025). The aim is to show how the animal is closely linked to the history…