"This catalogue illustrates and discusses fifty-two French drawings from the late seventeenth to the early nineteenth century, all from the chateau de Versailles, which owns one of the finest collections of French drawings in the world. Never before discussed as a group, the drawings together tell the story of the major buildings at Versailles, its gardens, the court and the personalities associated with the famous palace of Louis XIV and later French kings. Among the artists represented are many of the major figures of this magnificent period of French art, including Le Brun, Lemoyne, Cochin, Claude-Joseph and Horace Vernet, David - whose great drawing The Oath of the Jeu de Paume is a particular highlight - Jean-Baptiste Isabey and Paul Delaroche. The catalogue complements a major exhibition at the Wallace Collection, held in autumn 2006."--BOOK JACKET.