As a child growing up in Paris, it was mandatory for students to visit the Palace once a year.  It’s fair to assume that I was a bit less excited about the tour as I am today.  It wasn’t until I became a decorative painter, that I began to pay close attention and fell in love with the rooms.

Sure, the Palace has massive historical relevance and the paintings are quite a collection, but the multiple facets of decorative painting and natural finishes are vast and varied.

The biggest gem, for me, is the fantastic examples of real marble.  It is an excellent resource for reference material for your faux marble.  The Palace also offers stunning examples of:  faux marble, woodgrain, trompe l’oeil, painted and 3-D ornaments, gilding and polychrome, grisaille, and historical patina rooms.

At the time of the class tour, we were just about to begin the faux marble segment of the class.  Jean Sablé and myself were able to point out real marble for inspiration.  You cannot create a realistic rendering of marble unless you study the composition, fractures, fissures, veining, colors, etc of real marble.  We were especially interested in the French marble, Sarrancollin (lovingly pronounced by our students as “Sara Collin”).  Louis IV called this marble “the King of marble and the marble of Kings.”