The Château de Choisy was a royal French residence in the commune of
Choisy-le-Roi
Choisy-le-Roi () is a commune in the Val-de-Marne department, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, ÃŽle-de-France.
Geography
Choisy-le-Roi is located southeast from the center of Paris, on both banks of the river Seine. The neighbouring commu ...
in the
Val-de-Marne
Val-de-Marne (, "Vale of the Marne") is a department of France located in the ÃŽle-de-France region. Named after the river Marne, it is situated in the Grand Paris metropolis to the southeast of the City of Paris. In 2019, Val-de-Marne had a pop ...
department, not far from
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. The commune was given its present name by
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
, when he purchased the manor of Choisy and its château in October 1739.
The Château of La Grande Mademoiselle
The site had been purchased well before 1680 by Louis XIV's first cousin
Anne-Marie-Louise d'Orléans, duchesse de Montpensier, "La Grande Mademoiselle". She laid out 40,000 ''livres'' for the property, and swept away an existing ''
corps de logis
In architecture, a ''corps de logis'' () is the principal block of a large, (usually Classical architecture, classical), mansion or palace. It contains the principal rooms, state apartments and an entry.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dict ...
'', according to her ''Mémoires'', and had a new house built to plans of
Jacques Gabriel
Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...
—"who made ''my'' house to ''my'' fashion" Mlle Montpensier noted, "without any ornament or 'architecture'" an assertion that overlooked sculptural enrichments in the pediment, by
Étienne Le Hongre.
The Château de Choisy was set in an elaborate series of gardens laid out by
André Le Nôtre
André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed the gar ...
. He was called in before the few existing buildings were swept away and found the site too closed in by dense woodlands: "There one only saw the riverbank as if through a
dormer window
A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window.
Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...
," he told the king—who passed on the remark— and advised Mlle de Montpensier to begin in this ''"vilaine situation"'' by "laying low all the woods that were there". The view of the river was the main thing, and Mlle de Montpensier calculated it to advantage: "As I had my house built in order to go there in summer, I took measures in order that one might see the river in the time of year when it is at its lowest; from my bed I see it and all the boats that pass."
The lost château is known today through engravings by
Pierre-Jean Mariette
Pierre-Jean Mariette (7 May 1694 – 10 September 1774) was a collector of and dealer in old master prints, a renowned connoisseur, especially of prints and drawings, and a chronicler of the careers of French Italian and Flemish artists. He w ...
,
Gabriel Perelle
Gabriel Perelle (born 1604 in Vernon, Eure, died 1677 in Paris) was a French draftsman and printmaker of topographic views and landscapes.
A pupil of Simon Vouet, Perelle specialized in classical landscapes not dissimilar to those of Francisque M ...
and
Pierre Aveline
Pierre Aveline (1656–1722), was a French engraver, print-publisher and print-seller.
Aveline was born in Paris and the head of a family of artists, including his two sons Pierre-Alexandre Aveline and Antoine Aveline
Antoine Aveline (1691–174 ...
. Its interiors were well described in the Grande Mademoiselle's ''Mémoires''.
The château passed in 1693 to ''
le Grand Dauphin
Louis, Dauphin of France (1 November 1661 – 14 April 1711), commonly known as Grand Dauphin, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. He became known as the Grand Dauphin after the birth of h ...
'', who had some interior modifications executed (Kimball 1943 p 51) before exchanging it in 1695 for
Meudon
Meudon () is a municipality in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is in the département of Hauts-de-Seine. It is located from the center of Paris. The city is known for many historic monuments and some extraordinary trees. One of t ...
, more accessible from Versailles.
Reign of Louis XV
In 1716, it was sold to
Marie Anne de Bourbon
Marie Anne de Bourbon, ''Légitimée de France','' born Marie Anne de La Blaume Le Blanc, by her marriage Princess of Conti then Princess Dowager of Conti, ''suo jure'' Duchess of La Vallière and of Vaujours (2 October 1666 – 3 May 1739) ...
(1666-1739), dowager princess de Conti, the legitimised daughter of Louis XIV and
Louise de la Vallière
Françoise ''Louise'' de La Vallière, Duchess of La Vallière and Vaujours, born Françoise Louise de La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière, Mademoiselle de La Vallière (6 August 1644 – 7 June 1710) was a French noblewoman and the first mistress ...
. On her death in 1739 it was sold to the king, by then
Louis XV
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...
.
In spite of the loss of the immediately surrounding woods in favor of
parterre
A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...
s with the Seine as backdrop and
bosquet
In the French formal garden, a ''bosquet'' (French, from Italian ''bosco'', "grove, wood") is a formal plantation of trees in a wide variety of forms, some open at the bottom and others not. At a minimum a bosquet can be five trees of identical s ...
s punctuated by statuary, the hunting was good in the neighboring forest of Sénart, the king's original motivation for purchasing Choisy. The king enlarged the château from 1740 onwards, under the direction of
Ange-Jacques Gabriel
Ange-Jacques Gabriel (23 October 1698 – 4 January 1782) was the principal architect of King Louis XV of France. His major works included the Place de la Concorde, the École Militaire, and the Petit Trianon and opera theater at the Palace of Ve ...
, ''premier architecte du Roi''. He was able to use Choisy by 1741. The central block was doubled in depth in the modern way; a theatre was added and the stables were greatly enlarged; Mlle de Montpesier's ''belle
orangerie
An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very large ...
'' was rebuilt and in its central ''salon''
Edmé Bouchardon
Edmé Bouchardon (; 29 May 169827 July 1762) was a French sculptor best known for his neoclassical statues in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles, his medals, his equestrian statue of Louis XV of France for the Place de la Concorde (destroy ...
's ''Love shaping his bow from the club of Hercules'' was installed in 1752. A bathing pavilion was added, and above all a ''Petit Château'' (''illustration, right'') was designed to provide an intimate refuge for Louis XV and
Madame de Pompadour
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, ; 29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and rema ...
. Works continued in a series of campaigns as late as 1777, though Louis XV lost interest in Choisy after Pompadour's death, but there is precious little documentation of the interiors, save a section by Gabriel, dated 1754, of the circular Salon and Vestibule in the ''Pavillon Particulier du Roi'', the Petit Château: "it shows a sober character'
Fiske Kimball
Sidney Fiske Kimball (1888 – 1955) was an American architect, architectural historian and museum director. A pioneer in the field of historic preservation, architectural preservation in the United States, he played a leading part in the re ...
reported: 'the overdoor is an unbroken oval crowned with shellwork and scrolls, but draped...with the newly fashionable garland of husks" (Kimball p 207).
The furnishings of Choisy were intentionally kept simple. The King's writing table for his use at Choisy, delivered by royal ''
ébéniste
''Ébéniste'' () is a loanword (from French) for a cabinet-maker, particularly one who works in ebony.
Etymology and ambiguities
As opposed to ''ébéniste'', the term ''menuisier'' denotes a woodcarver or chairmaker in French. The English equiva ...
''
Antoine Gaudreau in 1744 though it bears gilt-bronze mounts, is no grander than the writing tables of many a contemporaneous aristocrat.
Chardin provided emblematic still lives free of rhetoric or pomp, as
overdoor
An "overdoor" (or "Supraporte" as in German, or "sopraporte" as in Italian) is a painting, bas-relief or decorative panel, generally in a horizontal format, that is set, typically within ornamental mouldings, over a door, or was originally intend ...
s for an unidentified room, in 1765.
Lambert Sigisbert Adam was less than lucky, however, with his marble bust of Louis XV as Apollo, dated 1749, which Adam had shown at the Salon of 1745 and which, on his own initiative, he placed in the ''Galerie'' at Choisy, which was to be decorated by Charles Parrocel with a series of decorative ''Conquests of Louis XV''. The project, perhaps too grandiose for the royal retreat, came to nothing, and Adam overreached himself in asking 7000 louis for the bust; the king's reaction in September 1762 was that he did not want to see it at Choisy on his next visit and that Adam should pack it up and remove it.
The surrounding parish received an influx of business due to the royal presence, and a new
parish church
A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in community activities, ...
. For
fête
In Britain and some of its former colonies, fêtes are traditional public festivals, held outdoors and organised to raise funds for a charity. They typically include entertainment and the sale of goods and refreshments.
Village fêtes
Village fà ...
s on the river at Choisy, the king had
gondola
The gondola (, ; vec, góndoła ) is a traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat, well suited to the conditions of the Venetian lagoon. It is typically propelled by a gondolier, who uses a rowing oar, which is not fastened to the hull ...
s imported from Venice.
Later history
After the king's death,
Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne (; ; née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was the last queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child a ...
came often to Choisy, though at the time of the purchase of the
Château de Saint-Cloud
The Château de Saint-Cloud was a château in France, built on a site overlooking the Seine at Saint-Cloud in Hauts-de-Seine, about west of Paris. On the site of the former palace is the state-owned Parc de Saint-Cloud.
The château was expand ...
from the Orléans, it was briefly suggested that Choisy be part of the exchange. Louis XV installed at Choisy the portrait he commissioned from
Drouais of Marie Antoinette as Dauphine, in 1773 In 1777, when the Queen wished to build at Versailles a little theatre for private performances in which she joined, she instructed the architect
Richard Mique
Richard Mique () (18 September 1728 – 8 July 1794) was a neoclassical French architect born in Lorraine. He is most remembered for his picturesque hamlet, the ''Hameau de la Reine'' — not particularly characteristic of his working style — f ...
to take for his model the theatre at Choisy built by Gabriel for Mme de Pompadour; as a result, the theatre, finished in 1779, though it is modest and fully Neoclassical on the outside, has an interior unexpectedly rococo for its date.
The château and the ''petit château'' were royal residences; thus at the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (Latin: ''revolutio'', "a turn around") is a fundamental and relatively sudden change in political power and political organization which occurs when the population revolts against the government, typically due ...
, when the commune became Choisy-sur-Seine, the château was confiscated as a ''bien national'', emptied of its contents at auctions (part of the
Revolutionary sales), its terrains divided into individual lots and sold. The buildings fell into disrepair and were demolished bit by bit during the nineteenth century. Today all that remains are a dry ditch and
ha-ha
A ha-ha (french: hâ-hâ or ), also known as a sunk fence, blind fence, ditch and fence, deer wall, or foss, is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier (particularly on one side) while preserving an uninterrupted view ...
and two pavilions flanking the former ''
cour d'honneur
A ''cour d'honneur'' (; ; german: Ehrenhof) is the principal and formal approach and forecourt of a large building. It is usually defined by two secondary wings projecting forward from the main central block (''corps de logis''), sometimes wit ...
'', and a range of the former service wing.
Notes
References
Marie-Emmanuelle Plagnol-Diéval et al., "Théâtres de société"
* Fiske Kimball, ''The Creation of the Rococo'' (Philadelphia) 1943.
Further reading
* B. Champchine, ''Le château de Choisy'' (Paris) 1910.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau De Choisy
Choisy
Ancien Régime French architecture
Choisy
Baroque buildings in France