*Hidden de la Tour VI* (2022), a photo collage by Volker Hermes, based on Maurice Quentin de La Tour’s *Self-Portrait with Lace Jabot,* circa 1751.

A replica of a Louis XVI–era embroidered surcoat, by the costume designer Gabriele Mendella, circa 2019.

A watercolor of a salon in the Hôtel Grimod de La Reynière, in Paris, by Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer, 1781.

*Hidden Drouais IV* (2022), a photo collage by Hermes based on François-Hubert Drouais’s *Portrait of an Elegant Lady,* circa 1760–75.

A replica of an 18th-century *robe à l’anglaise,* by the costume designer Madame Jejette, 2023.

A Louis XVI–era wooden pulpit bed, circa 1770.

The Temple of Love, a decorative building in the Gardens of Versailles, by the architect Richard Mique, circa 1777.

*The Perfumer’s Costume,* a colored engraving by Nicolas Bonnart, circa 1695.

A croquembouche by Stohrer, the oldest patisserie in Paris, founded in 1730 by Louis XV’s pastry chef, Nicolas Stohrer.

A detail of *An Interior with a Lady, Her Maid, and a Gentleman,* by Louis Roland Trinquesse, 1776.

A carved giltwood voyeuse by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Sené, 1787.

A porcelain sculpture by Chris Antemann, 2007.

*Top,* inside Féau Boiseries, a firm that designs, makes, and sells decorated wood panels inspired by interiors from the 17th century to the present; *above,* Kirsten Dunst in *Marie Antoinette,* a film by Sofia Coppola, 2006.

A French silk court dress and petticoat brocaded with gilt threads, circa 1753–55.

A detail of the Salon de la Princesse, in the Hôtel de Soubise, circa 1735.

From Pomp to Purity

A new book collects images of 18th-century French furniture, interiors, architecture, art, and fashion, celebrating the period’s timeless influence

In 1666 France, Louis XIV reigned supreme. But Italy still controlled the arts. French artists flocked to the Eternal City for study at the French Academy, and returned with the cultural spoils of their time there—inspiration in architecture, design, and fashion. The king soon enlisted Jules Hardouin-Mansart, his court’s chief architect, to dream up a uniquely French aesthetic.

In 1678, as part of his renovation of the Grande Galerie in the Palace of Versailles, Hardouin-Mansart arranged 357 mirrors into a row of 17 large arches along a wall opposite 17 large, arched windows. The room seemed to double in size and grandeur. Before long, mirrors sprung up in courts across Europe. The Grande Galerie is known today as the Hall of Mirrors, and it was here that France’s artistic influence began.