Meeting of Francis I and Pope Clement VII in Marseilles on 13 October 1533

The work titled Meeting of Francis I and Pope Clement VII in Marseilles on 13 October 1533 was painted in 1837 and commissioned by Louis-Philippe I for the Musée national de Versailles et de Trianon. It was created by Charles-Philippe Larivière and François-Xavier Dupré as a collaborative history painting in the Romantic style, executed in oil on canvas (67 cm × 140 cm). The composition depicts the 1533 diplomatic meeting between Francis I and Pope Clement VII in Marseille, emphasizing Clement VII, clergy, and French nobility. The painting remains part of the French state collection at Versailles.

The artwork was first listed in the Joconde database (inventory number MV 57, INV 5689, LP 2995) and has been housed at the Palace of Versailles since its acquisition.

The painting is held in the collection of the Museum of the History of France, located within the Palace of Versailles in France. It is registered under multiple inventory numbers: MV 57, INV 5689, and LP 2995. The work was originally commissioned by Louis-Philippe I as part of the historical series for the Versailles galleries.

While the piece dates to 1837 and remains a significant holding of the national châteaux museums, the available records do not list specific temporary exhibitions or loan history outside its permanent institutional context.

The painting entered the Musée de l'Histoire de France at the Palace of Versailles after its commission by Louis-Philippe I in 1837, where it remains on display as part of the gallery’s program to illustrate French history. As a Romantic history work by Charles‑Philippe Larivière (with François‑Xavier Dupré), it exemplifies the July Monarchy’s use of monumental painting to shape national memory, securing its reputation as a visual document of the 1533 meeting between Francis I and Pope Clement VII. Its continued presence in Versailles underscores its lasting legacy within France’s artistic and historiographical tradition.

Charles‑Philippe Larivière, a French academic painter of the 19th century, completed an oil history painting in 1837 that records the 1533 encounter between King Francis I of France and Pope Clement VII in Marseille. The canvas, now held in the Palace of Versailles, presents the diplomatic meeting as a formal, highly staged tableau.

The depicted meeting took place on 13 October 1533, a moment when Francis I sought papal support against Habsburg pressures. By the 1830s, French artists often revisited such national episodes, using them to reinforce contemporary ideas of statecraft and religious unity.