The Hôtel de Bourbon-Condé is an ''

hôtel particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the Townhouse (Great Britain), British townhouse or mansion. Whereas an ordinary ''maison'' (house) was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side an ...

'', a kind of large

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

in France, at 12 Rue Monsieur, in the

7th arrondissement of Paris The 7th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''le septième''. The arrondissement, ca ...

. It was built for Louise Adélaïde de Bourbon by architect

Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart (; 15 February 1739 – 6 June 1813) was a prominent French architect. Biography Born in Paris, France. A prominent member of Parisian society, in 1767 he married Anne-Louise d'Egremont. The couple became frie ...

History

In 1780 the twenty-three-year-old unmarried daughter of the

Prince of Condé A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The ...

, Louise Adélaïde, also known as Mademoiselle de Condé, requested permission to leave the convent of Panthémont, where she had been educated, to live in the world. To suit her station in life a generous site was purchased in the rue Monsieur on the

Left Bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography, as follows. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrai ...

, where Brogniart erected a splendid house. Previously, while working for the marquis de Montesquiou in 1778, Brongniart had received permission to open the rue Monsieur, where he also built stables for the

Count of Provence The land of Provence has a history quite separate from that of any of the larger nations of Europe. Its independent existence has its origins in the frontier nature of the dukedom in Merovingian Gaul. In this position, influenced and affected by ...

, and a ''hôtel'' for the Archives de l' ordre Saint-Lazare.Braham (1980), pp. 215, 216. The house was situated behind an enclosed court, entered through a central carriage passage, and faced a garden into which the central oval salon projected. By 1782 the ''menuisier'' ( chair-maker)

Georges Jacob Georges Jacob (6 July 1739 – 5 July 1814) was one of the two most prominent Parisian master ''menuisiers''. He produced carved, painted and gilded beds and seat furniture and upholstery work for the French royal châteaux, in the Neoclassical s ...

had delivered seat furnishings to the amount of 13,958 ''livres'' and

Jean-François Leleu Jean-François Leleu (1729 - 1807) was a leading French furniture-maker (ébéniste) of the eighteenth century who was trained alongside his rival Jean-Henri Riesener, in the workshop of Jean-François Oeben (1721-1763). After his master's death, ...

, a prominent ''

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 ...

'' (cabinetmaker), had rendered a bill for veneered case-pieces,Parker (1967), p 232. but no detailed contemporary description of the interiors survives:

Horace Walpole Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician. He had Strawb ...

mentioned this "Hôtel de Condé" in passing as an exemplar of the latest French neoclassical taste, after he had his first view of the Prince of Wales's

Carlton House Carlton House was a mansion in Westminster, best known as the town residence of King George IV. It faced the south side of Pall Mall, and its gardens abutted St James's Park in the St James's district of London. The location of the house, no ...

, London, in September 1785. The garden was landscaped in the ''genre pittoresque'', the informal "picturesque genre" that was one aspect of French Anglomania in the 1780s. From the Boulevard des Invalides, passing along the garden, an open iron fence gave passers-by a view of the principal facade, the garden front in its landscaped setting.Parker (1967), p. 233. In the forecourt, long stucco panels in low-relief of children engaged in Bacchanalian procession were supplied by Clodion (

Claude Michel Claude Michel (20 December 1738 – 29 March 1814), known as Clodion, was a French sculptor in the Rococo style, especially noted for his works in marble, bronze, & terracotta. Life He was born in Nancy to Anne Adam and Thomas Michel, an un ...

). The art historian Michael Levey has written that "the superb stucco decorations for the courtyard of the Hôtel de Bourbon-Condé ... rewonderfully zestful and redolent of the Renaissance in

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

unforced, enchanted pagan air, bringing hints of the countryside of antiquity into late eighteenth-century urban Paris."Clodion is known to have supplied stucco reliefs for several of Brogniart's schemes (Parker 1967), p. 237. The reliefs were eventually removed from the walls of the courtyard and have been conserved at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

since 1959. Considerations of rank prevented the Princesse de Condé from marriage; in 1789 she escaped the first stages of the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. In 1802, in Poland she took the veil, before she returned to Paris in 1816, to consecrate the rest of her life to religious work. She died in 1824, but she never again resided in Brogniart's Hôtel de Condé.

Gallery

File:Hôtel de Bourbon-Condé - interior courtyard - Parker1967.jpg, Interior courtyard photograph ( 1920)Parker (1967), p. 231. File:Hôtel de Bourbon-Condé - floor plan and elevation - Parker1967.jpg, Elevation and floor plan. In the elevation, the sculptures to be added by

Clodion Claude Michel (20 December 1738 – 29 March 1814), known as Clodion, was a French sculptor in the Rococo style, especially noted for his works in marble, bronze, & terracotta. Life He was born in Nancy to Anne Adam and Thomas Michel, an un ...

were "fancifully interpreted".Parker (1967), p. 231. In the plan north, is down; the rue Monsieur, to the left; and the Boulevard des Invalides, to the right. File:Paris hotel bourbon conde interior.jpg, Interior

Notes

Sources

* Bauchal, Charles (1887). ''Nouveau dictionnaire biographique et critique des architectes français'' . Paris: André, Daly Fils
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* Braham, Allan (1980). ''The architecture of the French enlightenment'', pp. 210–219. Berkeley, California: University of California Press.
Limited view
at

. * Cunningham, Peter, ed. (1906). ''The letters of Horace Walpole: fourth earl of Orford'', vol. 9, p. 14. Edinburgh: John Grant
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. * Levey, Michael (1995). ''Painting and Sculpture in France 1700-1789''. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
Limited view
at

. * Parker, James (1967). "Clodion's Bas-Reliefs from the Hôtel de Condé" in ''The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin'' New Series, 25.6 (February 1967): 230–241. , originally available at metmuseum.org.

External links

* Photographs of the building exterior, interior and grounds
HP Bourbon-Condé, Paris VIIème - Blog de riesener - Club Doctissimo
* Facade of 12 rue Monsieur
street view
at

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.
"Le décor de la cour de l'hôtel de Bourbon-Condé par Clodion (1738-1814)"
at insecula.com. hotos no longer available. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hotel De Bourbon-Conde Residential buildings completed in 1782 Buildings and structures in the 7th arrondissement of Paris Bourbon-Condé 1782 establishments in France 18th-century architecture in France

History

Gallery

See also

Notes

Sources

External links