Signature du traité de paix de Vervins

This painting by Gillot Saint-Èvre, titled “Signing of the Treaty of Vervins,” depicts the conclusion of the Peace of Vervins between France and Spain at the end of the sixteenth century. The treaty was signed on 2 May 1598 at Vervins, in what is now the department of Aisne, between Henry IV of France and Philip II of Spain. The composition presents a group of dignitaries, prelates, and political representatives gathered in a solemn interior at the moment of the signing or presentation of the agreement. The image emphasizes the diplomatic nature of the event, the theatricality of political ceremony, and the visual ordering of reconciliation between rival powers. Painted in 1837, this oil on canvas, now kept at the Grand Trianon in Versailles, belongs to nineteenth-century history painting, attentive to major treaties, official gestures, and the political memory of the kingdom of France.