The Palais Beauharnais, Paris

Magazine Antiques, Oct, 2006 by Ulrich Leben, Jorg Ebeling

The interior of the Palais Beauharnais, the residence of the German ambassador to France, is considered a unique art historical and cultural ensemble. (1) There are indeed very few interiors of such quality from the Empire period left in Paris today. Since the destruction of the Palais des Tuileries and the Chateau de Saint-Cloud, the Palais Beauharnais retains the most significant interior from the period of Napoleon's consulate, predating slightly the heavier imperial conceptions one can still see at Compiegne and Fontainebleau. However, an inventory conducted in 2002 by the Centre allemande d'histoire de l'art--Deutsches Forum fur Kunstgeschichte in Paris showed that many changes have been made during the life of the building, which dates from 1713. (2) It was built by Germain Boffrand (1667-1754) and was owned at one point in the eighteenth century by Jean Baptiste Colbert de Torcy (1665-1746), a nephew of Louis XIV's famous finance minister Jean Baptiste Colbert. Next it belonged to Gabriel Louis de Neufville (1731-1794), duc de Villeroy, who was guillotined during the French Revolution. Plundered and used as stables and for public dancing during the Terror, it was sold by Villeroy's heirs to two real estate brokers in 1796. They redecorated it for sale, including the addition of three large ideal Italian landscapes by Hubert Robert (1733-1808) which were hung in the central salon on the second floor and are now in the Green Salon.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]

In 1803 the building was bought by Eugene de Beauharnais. He and his sister Hortense (1783-1837) were the children of Josephine de Beauharnais and vicomte Alexandre de Beauharnais (1760-1793), who had been guillotined during the Terror. Josephine then married Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) in 1796 and was empress of France from 1804 to 1810. Eugene's mother and sister supervised the luxurious refurbishment and decoration of the interior of the house, which was all done in a style that is generally known as Empire, but might better be called consulate because the delicacy of the ornamentation is more in keeping with the refinement of the eighteenth century than with the heavier and more imposing Napoleonic Empire style of just a few years later. The arrangement of the floor plan and the exterior were relatively untouched, except for the addition of a portico on the front facade (Fig. 1), which is one of the few surviving examples of the Egyptian style architecture popularized all over Europe by Napoleon's Egyptian campaign (1798-1801). Originally thought to be designed by Eugene's architect, Laurent Edme Bataille (1758-1819), the portico is now attributed to Jean Auguste Renard because of similarities to an Egyptian garden temple he built for Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord (1754-1838) at his estate of Valencay in the Loire River valley. The architectural inspiration for the portico comes from engravings of Egyptian sites by Dominique Vivant Denon (1747-1825), particularly his views of the Temples of Dendera and Edfu published in his Voyage dans la Basse et Haute Egypte (1802), a lavishly illustrated account of the sites visited during the Napoleonic campaign. (3)

[FIGURE 8 OMITTED]

The fifteen-year-old Eugene had accompanied his stepfather on the Egyptian campaign, which also included scientists, geographers, and artists. The campaign was a military disaster, but the escorting scientists and artists returned with material that had never been seen before in Europe. Elements and motifs of their archaeological finds were used in the decoration of the interior of the Palais Beauharnais, where the furniture, gilt bronzes, and painted ceilings are covered with lotus leaves, palmettes, capitals, and Egyptian figures with royal headdresses. The Egyptian motifs blend harmoniously with the Pompeian and Roman style of the reception rooms and elements related to the Etruscan creations made for Marie Antoinette during the last years of the ancien regime. The walls of some of the grandest rooms were covered with cinnamon-colored silk of a shade then known as fond terre d'Egypte.

[FIGURE 9 OMITTED]

As a matter of fact, Eugene de Beauharnais used his Paris house only during a few short visits to the city. He was made viceroy to Italy in 1804 and therefore had to spend most of his time in Milan, where he occupied several palaces. In January 1806, by order of his stepfather, he married Auguste Amelie (1788-1851), the eldest daughter of Maximilian I (r. 1806-1825), king of Bavaria. The wedding was originally planned to take place in Paris, but at the last minute Napoleon decided to have it in Munich. For those guests who were not able to attend the ceremonies in Munich, Hortense gave a ball in January 1806 in the Palais Beauharnais, the decoration and furnishing of which had just been finished. (4) She wrote to Eugene: "Everyone [at the ball] was saddened to be in the pretty gallery where we had so often amused ourselves and to find only a painting of you. It is an excellent portrait! It is the one by Gerard. For the occasion it was crowned with myrtle." (5)