Current Exhibitions

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the death of King Henri IV, the Domaine de Chantilly presents two exhibitions :

Henri IV. Portraits of a Kingdom

For Henri IV (1553-1610), the Château de Chantilly was “the most beautiful dwelling in France—even more beautiful than his own.”

When Henri IV’s popularity rebounded in the 19th century, his descendant, the Duc d’Aumale, collected all of the portraits of the ruler he could find and brought them to Chantilly. As a result, today the Condé Museum houses the premiere collection in France of painted portraits and drawings from the era of Henri IV.

The first room is dedicated to King Henri IV and his contemporaries, highlighting works from their era. The second room focuses on remembrance—the desecration of the monarch’s tomb in 1793 and mortuary masks of the 19th century. The last room displays portraits of the king from the 17th to 19th centuries.

The king must be killed.

Plots and attacks on 16th and 17th century French monarchs

Henri IV is the most famous of all the assassinated kings. Though Ravaillac eventually succeeded in killing the monarch, his was not the first or last attack on a French ruler. This groundbreaking exhibition draws visitors deep into the passion and mystery behind the aberrant crime of regicide.

Henri III and Jacques Clément, Louis XV and Damiens, Louis-Philippe and Fieschi… these assassins and their royal targets are bound together forever in the pages of history.

The stories behind these legendary assassinations are told through theoretical works, historical archives, engravings, illustrations, and documents drawn exclusively from the Duc d’Aumale’s library.