• The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is the creation of three artists, brought together by Nicolas Fouquet, Superintendent of Finances during the reign of the young King Louis XV: architect Louis Le Vau, gardener André Le Nôtre and painter-designer Charles Le Brun. United as a team by a fraternal genius, together they created the most perfect harmony of 18th century architecture and landscape.
• From the moment of its inaugural feast on 17 August 1661, Vaux-le-Vicomte was coveted by the Sun King and became the model of inspiration for the Château de Versailles, followed by the whole of Europe.
• Today, the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is facing increasingly significant challenges for its preservation.

Objective

The aim is now to restore and protect the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, its gardens and surroundings, so as to be able to hand it down to future generations and share this French masterpiece with visitors.

Activities

• The principal work undertaken by the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte since 2018, which will continue up to the end of 2020, has been the restoration of the Grand Salon. As the former nerve-centre of the building, the Grand Salon is a complex space that was innovative, but also unfinished. It forms a central hub from which all the decor of the château radiates.
• In 1660, the painter and designer Charles Le Brun planned to create an exceptional fresco in the dome of the Grand Salon that combined, in harmony and grandeur, architecture, sculpture and painting, but also astronomy and astrology, history and geography.
• Today, le Grand Salon needs large-scale restoration: the ceiling and stucco ends require urgent and complete restoration. And finally, in order to complete this restoration, Charles Le Brun’s sketches will be digitized and projected onto the inside of the dome, thanks to the latest technology of video mapping.
• Beyond this emblematic restoration, donations enable other projects on the estate to be completed intermittently. An example of this is the project to restore the two large ponds of Triton and the naiad, work that is essential for preserving their hydraulic system, which is unique in its genre.

Myriad Canada is working together with the Friends of Vaux-le-Vicomte Association to implement this project. The association, founded in 1983 and recognized as of public interest, has as its mission to preserve the Vaux-le-Vicomte estate, enrich its collections and produce cultural, scientific and educational events that contribute to the transmission for everyone’s enjoyment of this major ensemble of French heritage.