The Petit Luxembourg (; "Little Luxembourg") is a French ''

hôtel particulier An ''hôtel particulier'' () is a grand townhouse, comparable to the 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 and directly fronting on a s ...

'' and the residence of the president of the

French Senate The Senate (french: Sénat, ) is the upper house of the French Parliament, with the lower house being the National Assembly, the two houses constituting the legislature of France. The French Senate is made up of 348 senators (''sénateurs'' a ...

. It is located at 17–17 bis,

rue de Vaugirard The Rue de Vaugirard (Street of Vaugirard) is the longest street inside Paris's former city walls, at . It spans the 6th and 15th arrondissements. The Senate, housed in the Palais du Luxembourg, is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard. Location The Rue de V ...

, just west of the

Luxembourg Palace The Luxembourg Palace (french: Palais du Luxembourg, ) is at 15 Rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. It was originally built (1615–1645) to the designs of the French architect Salomon de Brosse to be the royal residence of th ...

, which serves as the seat of the Senate, in the

6th arrondissement of Paris The 6th arrondissement of Paris (''VIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le sixième''. The arrondissement, called Luxembourg in a reference to the seat o ...

. Originally built around 1550 to the designs of an unknown architect, it is especially noted for the surviving

Rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

interiors designed in 1710–1713 by the French architect

Germain Boffrand Germain Boffrand () (16 May 1667 – 19 March 1754) was a French architect. A pupil of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Germain Boffrand was one of the main creators of the precursor to Rococo called the '' style Régence'', and in his interiors, of the ...

.Ayers 2004, p. 132. Further west, at 19 rue de Vaugirard, is the

Musée du Luxembourg The Musée du Luxembourg () is a museum at 19 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Established in 1750, it was initially an art museum located in the east wing of the Luxembourg Palace (the matching west wing housed the Marie de' ...

Early history

The original sixteenth-century building is of obscure origin, but became known as the Hôtel de Luxembourg after its acquisition in 1570 by François de Luxembourg, who in 1581 became

Duc de Piney Duke of Piney (french: Duc de Piney) was a title in the Peerage of France. The holders were also sometimes called duc de Luxembourg, after the House of Luxembourg, from whom they were descended. History The duchy-peerage was created in 1581 for ...

Pair de France The Peerage of France (french: Pairie de France) was a hereditary distinction within the French nobility which appeared in 1180 in the Middle Ages. The prestigious title and position of Peer of France (french: Pair de France, links=no) was ...

Marie de Médicis Marie de' Medici (french: link=no, Marie de Médicis, it, link=no, Maria de' Medici; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV of France of the House of Bourbon, and Regent of the Kingd ...

purchased the ''hôtel'' in 1612 when she began acquiring property for the construction of the adjacent Luxembourg Palace. The old ''hôtel'' soon became known as the Petit Luxembourg to distinguish it from the larger building.Le « Petit Luxembourg »
at the French Senate website. File:Hôtel de François de Luxembourg, reconstitution par Hustin 1910 p80 (cropped).jpg, Perspective view File:Plan du premier étage du Petit Luxembourg au XVIIIe siècle - Hustin 1910 p77.jpg, Floor plan with some later modifications made by Marie de Médicis In 1627 Marie de Médicis gave the Petit Luxembourg to Cardinal de Richelieu, who occupied it while his own grand palace, the Palais-Cardinal, was constructed on the

rue Saint-Honoré The rue Saint-Honoré is a street in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. It is named after the collegial situated in ancient times within the cloisters of Saint-Honoré. The street, on which are located a number of museums and upscale bou ...

. Richelieu left the Petit Luxembourg to his niece, the Duchess of Aiguillon. It was inherited in turn by the

Grand Condé Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor * Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist * Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper Places * Grand, Oklahoma * Grand, Vosges, village and c ...

, who left it to his son, Henri Jules de Bourbon-Condé. The latter's widow, Anne of Bavaria, Princess Palatine, engaged the architect

to enlarge and redecorate it between 1710 and 1713.

Boffrand's alterations

Petit Luxembourg on the 1739 Turgot map of Paris - KU

Boffrand demolished the service buildings to the west of the courtyard, replacing them with a new wing for the

Palatine A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.

officers. The new wing preserved the style of the old ''

corps de logis In architecture, a ''corps de logis'' () is the principal block of a large, (usually classical), mansion or palace. It contains the principal rooms, state apartments and an entry.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture ...

'' to the east and incorporated vestiges of the Couvent des Filles-du-Calvaire, founded by Marie de Médicis in 1622. These can still be seen in the winter garden and the

Mannerist Mannerism, which may also be known as Late Renaissance, is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Ita ...

interior of the Queen's Chapel. Between the street and the courtyard Boffrand added an entrance screen which connected the old to the new. Its portal is flanked by Tuscan columns on the concave courtyard side and Ionic on the convex street side. The upper floor contains a corridor connecting the east and west wings. Although Boffrand preserved the façades of the older wing, he completely redesigned the interior. A modest vestibule with Ionic columns leads directly to a grand two-storey stair hall decorated on the upper floor with pilasters of the

Composite order The Composite order is a mixed order, combining the volutes of the Ionic order capital with the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian order.Henig, Martin (ed.), ''A Handbook of Roman Art'', p. 50, Phaidon, 1983, In many versions the composite or ...

, elaborate carvings, and a

coffer A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault. A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also ...

ed vault. The staircase, much admired in its day, sweeps up to the piano nobile in a single flight, its grandeur enhanced with

balustrades A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its con ...

of stone, rather than the more usual

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" ...

. The princess's apartments lead directly off the landing. The first room no longer has the original décor, but the next (the Salon des Tapisseries) still has Boffrand's ceiling,

cornices In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

, and

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

. The following room, the Grand Salon also retains these elements. In large rooms, such as the stair hall and the Grand Salon, Boffrand's unit of design was not the wall (as seen with Pierre Lepautre), but rather the entire room. Each wall consisted of a great

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

, which "pulled the space together and subordinated doors, windows, and mirrors to a regular rhythm."Kalnein 1995, p. 61. The focus of the décor was high in the spandrels between the arches, not in the wall panels as seen with Lepautre. This principle, first employed by J. H. Mansart at the

Grand Trianon The Grand Trianon () is a French Baroque style château situated in the northwestern part of the Domain of Versailles in Versailles, France. It was built at the request of King Louis XIV of France as a retreat for himself and his '' maîtresse- ...

, kept the main part of the wall surface free for hangings, such as tapestries and paintings. The band of ornate spandrels running around the room achieves a unity, which is further emphasized by the slightly vaulted ceiling. Boffrand's decorative motifs, "the linked C-scrolls entwined with palmettes and festoons," are more similar to those of Jean Bérain than Lepautre. Boffrand also added another hôtel for the household, with kitchens and stables, on the other side of rue de Vaugirard; an underground passage linked the two residences. File:Escalier de Boffrand.jpg, Boffrand's staircase File:Grand salon petit luxembourg.JPG, Grand Salon File:Plan du premier étage du Petit Luxembourg, 1709 project - Gallica 2011-09 (adjusted).jpg, Project of 1709, first-floor plans for the main buildings (south at the top) File:Plan du rez-de-chaussée du Petit Luxembourg avec basse-cour, 1709 project - Gallica 2011-09 (adjusted).jpg, Project of 1709, ground-floor plans for the main buildings and the service wing north of the rue de Vaugirard File:Porte du Palais du petit Luxembourg Pl45 Livre d'architecture par G Boffrand - INHA (cropped).jpg, Coach entrance on the rue de Vaugirard from Boffrand's ''Livre d'architecture'', 1745

Later history

During the French Revolution, from 6 October 1789 until their departure into exile on 20 June 1791, the Petit Luxembourg was the assigned residence of the Count of Provence (the future

Louis XVIII of France Louis XVIII (Louis Stanislas Xavier; 17 November 1755 – 16 September 1824), known as the Desired (), was King of France from 1814 to 1824, except for a brief interruption during the Hundred Days in 1815. He spent twenty-three years in ...

) and his wife. Under Napoleon, the Conseil d'État (Council of State) was seated at the Petit Luxembourg from 25 December 1799. Since 1958, the Petit Luxembourg has been the official residence of the president of the

Images of the Petit Luxembourg

File:Cour petit luxembourg.JPG, Courtyard side of the entrance File:Jurdin d'hiver lux3.JPG, Winter garden File:Petit-luxembourg-chapelle.jpg, Chapel (1622–1631) File:Statue de la nuit dagonet.JPG, Grand staircase, reflected in a mirror File:Plafond escalier boffrand.JPG, Stair hall ceiling with 1894 painting by

Hippolyte Berteaux Hippolyte-Dominique Berteaux (28 March 1843, Saint-Quentin, Aisne - 17 October 1926, Paris) was a French painter who specialized in murals and portraits. Biography He studied painting at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, where ...

File:Couder - Installation du Conseil d'Etat.png, ''Installation of the Conseil d'Etat at the Petit Luxembourg, 25 December 1799'', by Couder, 1856"Bicentenaire du Sénat : Conseil d'État"
at the French Senate website. File:Marbre lettre napoleon.JPG, Napoleonic marble plaque inserted in 18th-century ''

boiserie Panelling (or paneling in the U.S.) is a millwork wall covering constructed from rigid or semi-rigid components. These are traditionally interlocking wood, but could be plastic or other materials. Panelling was developed in antiquity to make roo ...

'' File:Bureau du president du senat 1.JPG, Office of the Senate President File:Fontaine du Petit Luxembourg - Hustin 1905 p116 - Gallica 2012.jpg, Garden fountain, 1905 File:Jardin du Petit Luxembourg.JPG, Garden

Notes

Bibliography

* Ayers, Andrew (2004). ''The Architecture of Paris''. Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges. . * Boffrand, Germain (1745). ''Livre d'architecture''. Paris
Copy
at INHA * Hustin, Arthur (1910). ''Le Luxembourg, son histoire domaniale, architecturale, décorative et anecdotique. Des premiers siècles à l'année 1611''. Paris: Imprimérie du Sénat.
Copy
at HathiTrust. * Kalnein, Wend von (1995). ''Architecture in France in the Eighteenth Century''. New Haven: Yale University Press. . * Ochterbeck, Cynthia Clayton, editor (2009). ''The Green Guide Paris''. Greenville, South Carolina: Michelin Maps and Guides. .

External links

"The Petit Luxembourg"
at the website of the

{{Visitor attractions in Paris Hôtels particuliers in Paris Buildings and structures in the 6th arrondissement of Paris Baroque buildings in France French Parliament