Hôtel Bonaparte

The Hôtel Bonaparte, also known as ''Hôtel de Ségur,'' ''Hôtel de la Victoire'' or ''Maison du 18 Brumaire,'' was a historic ''hôtel particulier'' located in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, dating largely from the end of 18th century. Due to its illustrious former residents and owners, it was a house of national importance, but ultimately fell victim to reasons of state, although its historical significance was already recognised at that time.

Although later considered historically significant, at the time of its construction, the house was considered rather modest among the aristocracy and the upper middle class due to its size and architecture. However, its location was considered desirable.

Location

The area that later became known as the ''Arrondissement de l'Opéra'' was still an inhospitable swampland in the mid-18th century. These marshlands were populated by frogs and true toads that sang there and from which the name Rue Chantereine (singing frogs) was derived.

As part of the city's steady expansion, the area was drained in the second half of the 18th century, after which building speculation began in this area as well. Soon, the Parisian high society also recognised the appeal of this lovely landscape. Accordingly, real estate prices rose rapidly. This development was further intensified in the 19th century after the reconstruction plans for Paris of Emperor Napoléon III and Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Baron Haussmann, became known, which also included the construction of the Opéra Garnier.

History

Hôtel de Ségur

In 1780, Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, a Swiss military officer in French service, bought this house at 6 Rue Chantereine for his illegitimate son Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur, or at least the baron financed his son's living there. The Baron de Besenval also helped to furnish the house, partly with furniture from his own house in Paris, the Hôtel de Besenval. The house was then known as the Hôtel de Ségur. It was built by the architect François-Victor Perrard de Montreuil (1742–1821), who in 1776 had bought a large plot of land in this area from the real estate speculator Jacques Louis Guillaume Bouret de Vézelay (1733–1810), on which he built a total of three houses. The smallest of these three houses was this one which later became known as the Hôtel Bonaparte. This was the house where Joseph-Alexandre Pierre de Ségur lived with his then mistress Louise Julie Careau.Jean-Jacques Fiechter: ''Le Baron Pierre-Victor de Besenval,'' Delachaux et Niestlé, Lausanne – Paris, 1993, p. 101 (le vicomte de Ségur comme propriétaire de la maison, financée par son père)Gabrielle Claerr Stamm: ''De Soleure à Paris : La saga de la famille de Besenval, seigneurs de Brunstatt, Riedisheim et Didenheim,'' Société d'Histoire du Sundgau, 2015, p. 148 (le vicomte de Ségur comme propriétaire de la maison, financée par son père)Jean-Jacques Fiechter: ''Baron Peter Viktor von Besenval: Ein Solothurner am Hofe von Versailles,'' Rothus Verlag, Solothurn, 1994, p. 97 (der Vicomte de Ségur als Besitzer des Hauses, finanziert vom Vater)

There are conflicting statements regarding the ownership of the house, depending on the source of information, sometimes from the same authors. On the one hand, the Vicomte de Ségur is mentioned as the owner of the house, on the other hand only as a tenant and that Louise Julie Careau bought the house in 1781 directly from the architect, who had built the house not for a specific client but as an investment.Bernard Chevallier, directeur des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau, du musée napoléonien de l'Île d’Aix, et de la Maison Bonaparte à Ajaccio, conservateur général du patrimoine: ''Napoléon et Joséphine – l'hôtel de la rue de la Victoire,'' La revue Napoléon, Hors-Série, numéro 2, Bonaparte de 1796 au printemps de 1798, 10/2005, pp. 76 et 77, citation : la maison a été bâtie de 1776 à 1778 par l'architecte Pérard de Montreuil pour le vicomte de Ségur, le « protecteur » de Julie CarreauBernard Chevallier
''Un hôtel particulier dans le 9e – L'Hôtel Bonaparte, Rue de la Victoire''
discours, 2008, publié sur le site « Neuf Histoire – 9e arrondissement » (récupéré 2025), précisant que Louise Julie Careau a acheté la maison en 1781

Hôtel de la Victoire, Hôtel Bonaparte or Maison du 18 Brumaire

When the relationship between Joseph-Alexandre Pierre de Ségur and Louise Julie Careau ended at the end of the 1780s, the Vicomte de Ségur either left the house to Louise Julie Careau or he simply moved out and let her live there with their son Alexandre Félix de Ségur (1781–1805).

On 10 August 1795, due to financial difficulties, Louise Julie Careau rented the house to her friend Joséphine de Beauharnais for an annual rent of 4,000 livres. As at the time of the construction of the house, the plot size at that time was still slightly less than 2.000 m².

On 9 March 1796, Napoléon Bonaparte and Joséphine de Beauharnais celebrated their wedding in this house in private, after having previously married at the Hôtel de Mondragon at 3 Rue d'Antin, then the town hall of the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. The wedding was scheduled for 8 pm, but didn't take place until around 10 pm. Napoleon Bonaparte arrived two hours late, as he was busy preparing for the Italian campaign. To celebrate the victorious Général Napoléon Bonaparte on his return from Italy, the Département de la Seine requested in December 1797 that the name of the Rue Chantereine be changed to Rue de la Victoire. On 26 March 1798, Napoléon Bonaparte acquired the house for his great love Joséphine for 52,400 livres whereupon it became known as the Hôtel Bonaparte. It was also in this house where Napoléon Bonaparte orchestrated the coup d'état that brought him to power on 18 Brumaire of the Year VIII (9 November 1799) whereupon the house also became known as Maison du 18 Brumaire.Amaury Lefébure, Céline Meunier, Christophe Pincemaille, Alain Pougetoux, Jean-Pierre Samoyault et d'autres
''Napoléon – Histoire des deux Empires: Joséphine et Napoléon, l'hôtel de la rue de la Victoire''
le site d'histoire de la Fondation Napoléon (reconnue d'utilité publique par un décret du 12 novembre 1987), extrait du catalogue de l'exposition tenue au Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau (15 octobre 2013 – 6 janvier 2014), RMN Éditions, Paris, 2013 (récupéré 2025)Francesca Whitlum-Cooper / Marie de Bruchard
''Napoléon – Histoire des deux Empires: L'Hôtel Bonaparte, Rue Chantereine''
le site d'histoire de la Fondation Napoléon (reconnue d'utilité publique par un décret du 12 novembre 1987), novembre 2014 (récupéré 2025)Jacques-Olivier Boudon, Professeur à la Sorbonne et Président de l'Institut Napoléon
''Bonaparte et Joséphine se marient au 3 de la Rue d'Antin''
le site BNP Paribas, janvier 2025 (récupéré 2025)

The Bonapartes move out, relatives come and go

On 15 November 1799, Joséphine and Napoléon officially moved from the Hôtel Bonaparte to the Petit Luxembourg. However, Napoléon kept the Hôtel Bonaparte. He loved the house. Napoléon personally took care of its maintenance. Between 1803 and 1804, he continually purchased adjacent land, thus expanding the grounds of the Hôtel Bonaparte.

Between 1799 and 1806, Napoléon and Joséphine lodged various people close to them in the Hôtel Bonaparte. Among them were Louis Bonaparte and his wife Hortense de Beauharnais, whose wedding took place in the house on 4 January 1802. The newlywed couple lived in the Hôtel Bonaparte until July 1802. In the same year, the couple moved into the Hôtel Dervieux, also on the Rue de la Victoire, which Napoléon had bought for them. The Hôtel Dervieux, designed by the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, also had to make way for construction measures for the redesign of Paris in 1863.

From September 1805 until his death on 15 March 1806, Robert-Marguerite, Baron de Tascher de la Pagerie (1740–1806), an uncle of Joséphine, lived in the house. The baron, however, continually complained, saying that this accommodation could only be temporary, as this house was certainly too modest for the empress's uncle. He even threatened to return to his homeland of Martinique in protest if he was not offered better accommodation and indicated that he planned his return trip to Martinique for May 1807. However, he died beforehand at the Hôtel Bonaparte.

Main rooms, garden and the entrance pavilion

After an approximately 80-meter-long avenue separating two properties, each with a separate ''hôtel particulier,'' both also built by the architect François-Victor Perrard de Montreuil, the courtyard and the south entrance of the Hôtel Bonaparte became visible. Opposite the south entrance, to the left and right of the property entrance, were the horse stables (west side) and the coach houses (east side). Although the two buildings were not identical in size, they were both built in the same style as pavilions with mansard roofs flanking the entrance.

The other two ''hôtels particuliers,'' left and right of the avenue leading to the Hôtel Bonaparte, later became known as the Hôtel d'Argenson Berthier (east side, demolished), once owned by Louis-Alexandre Berthier, Prince de Neuchâtel et Valangin, Prince de Wagram, and the Hôtel de Saint-Chamans Walewska (west side, still in existence). The Hôtel de Saint-Chamans Walewska became famous as the home of Napléon's mistress Marie Walewska, Comtesse Walewska, who gave birth to Napoléon's illegitimate son Alexandre Florian Joseph, Comte Colonna-Walewski, in 1810.

The Hôtel Bonaparte measured 17 meters by 10 meters. The east side of the house faced the main part of the garden. Both the east and west sides had two terminal symmetrical parallel architectural features known as ''avant-corps'', which rose the entire height of the building, with coped sides connected to each other by a central rectangular building, the ''corps de logis''. In general, the building was a completely symmetrical unit. The east side of the ''corps de logis'' had French doors flanking the fireplace. According to a model of the Hôtel Bonaparte on display at the Château de Malmaison, the west side of the ''corps de logis'' had the same layout, just without the fireplace. The doors opened onto a terrace with steps leading to the garden and served as informal entrances to the living room (''Grand Salon''). Although the two sides were identical, due to the orientation of the east side towards the main part of the garden, the east side was mostly immortalised in the paintings and engravings."L'Hôtel Bonaparte – Victime du Plan Haussmann", ''L'Illustration'', 24 November 1928, n° 4473, p. 602

On the south side, the semicircular staircase had been converted into a porch, using a wooden structure with a lead roof, which also served as the entrance. The porch, also called the pavilion, was decorated with carved wooden and gilded war trophies and covered with cotton drill (curtains as well as wall and ceiling coverings). The porch also served as the antechamber to the semicircular dining room. The door on the left in the dining room led into the mosaic salon, called boudoir, on the west side. From the boudoir one reached the stairs that led upstairs. Adjacent to the dining room, in the center of the house, was the large living room, which was equipped with a beautiful fireplace and four cross-windows (french doors). Next to it, the last room on the ground floor, was Napoléon Bonaparte's study, lit by a single window above the fireplace overlooking the garden to the east. The study had its own entrance, the north entrance.

On the floor above the ground floor were Josephine Bonaparte's bedroom with a bathroom, a small living room and Napoléon Bonaparte's bedroom which communicated with the study on the ground floor by a small winding staircase leading to a bathroom halfway up the floor and giving access to the servants' bedrooms arranged in an attic-like space.

Joséphine's semicircular bedroom above the dining room was also called the ''Pièce aux glaces (mirror room).'' The room was lined with wall-high, upward-curved mirrors, each panel framed by delicate columns and draped curtains. The entire wall covering was removed before the house was demolished. It later came into the possession of Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild. Towards the end of the 19th century, Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild acquired a variety of historical architectural elements. These served as decorative elements for her numerous properties, most notably the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and the Hôtel Ephrussi-Rothschild at 19 Avenue Foch in Paris, now the seat of the Embassy of Angola.

The family Lefebvre-Desnouettes and other residents

On 1 July 1806, in recognition of his services, Napoléon Bonaparte gave the Hôtel Bonaparte to his aide-de-camp, Général Charles, Comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes, by letters patent signed at the Château de Saint-Cloud. The donation was also made in view of Charles, Comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes', upcoming wedding to Marie Louise Stéphanie Rolier (1787–1880), whose mother, née Benielli, was a first cousin of Napoléon Bonaparte. It was Napoléon's wedding present. The family kept the house in their possession for over 50 years.Élodie Lefort
''Napoléon – Histoire des deux Empires: L'Hôtel Bonaparte, Rue Chantereine''
enquête sur le mystérieux aquarelliste Gustave de Reiset, le site d'histoire de la Fondation Napoléon (reconnue d'utilité publique par un décret du 12 novembre 1987), février 2022, (récupéré 2025)Ministère de la culture
''Vue du cabinet de travail de l'hôtel Bonaparte, rue de la Victoire à Paris''
le site des musées nationaux, la Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison & Bois-Préau (récupéré 2025)

After the death of the Comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes in 1822, his widow decided to rent the house. First to the Maréchal Henri Gatien Bertrand. From 1830, Jacques Coste, one of the founders of the newspaper ''Le Temps'', lived in the house. And from 1846 to 1852, the Pension Boudet, a private educational institution, occupied the house. Afterwards, a therapeutic establishment, called Les Néothermes, was established in the Hôtel Bonaparte.

The watercolour by the Comte de Reiset of the Hôtel Bonaparte

When Gustave, Comte de Reiset, married Marie Ernestine Blanche Lefebvre de Sancy de Parabère (1836–1905) on 20 May 1856, granddaughter of Général Charles, Comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes, he felt that the fate of the Hôtel Bonapart was sealed. Due to his position as a diplomat and the family ties of his wife's family to the imperial family, he was familiar with the plans of Emperor Napoléon III and Baron Haussmann for the urban development of Paris.

At the same time, the Comte de Reiset was aware that this building was of historical importance. This is why he rushed to produce a watercolour of the Hôtel Bonaparte in June 1856.

It is thanks to a photograph of this watercolour, accompanied by a letter from Gustave de Reiset dated 4 December 1893, now preserved at the Musée Carnavalet, that it is possible to affirm that he is the author of this watercolour. Gustave de Reiset specifies in his letter that he made this drawing in June 1856.

With this often reproduced watercolour, the Comte de Reiset created the most famous painting of the exterior of the Hôtel Bonaparte. The Comte de Reiset naturally also had access to the interior of the house, where he made sketches of selected rooms, including Napoléon's study. The sketch indicates, under the ceiling cornice, the location of a decoration which corresponds to that of the famous painted frieze, generally placed in Napoléon's study rooms in his various residences.

In addition, Gustave de Reiset explains that he keeps at home, in his house in Normandy, some furniture that was previously in the Hôtel Bonaparte and which would have belonged to Napoléon Bonaparte. Other furnishings that were once in the Hôtel Bonaparte are now part of the collections of the Château de Malmaison, the château that Joséphine bought in April 1799.

A victim of the urban planning of Baron Haussmann on behalf of Emperor Napoléon III

On 2 April 1857, the widow of Général Charles, Comte Lefebvre-Desnouettes, Marie Louise Stéphanie, Comtesse Lefebvre-Desnouettes, née Rolier (1787–1880), sold the Hôtel Bonaparte with its 3.650 m² plot to Émile Goubie for FRF 625,000.

In the same year, in the winter of 1857, the house was demolished due to the construction works for the Rue de Châteaudun, formerly called Rue Ollivier.

The Hôtel Bonaparte was therefore not a victim of building speculation, but of the urban planning of Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Baron Haussmann, and Emperor Napoléon III, who instructed the baron to bring air and light to the centre of Paris.

File:Hôtel Bonaparte Paris.png, An early 20th-century map of the 9th arrondissement of Paris, showing the former location of the Hôtel Bonaparte, before and after the construction work for the Rue de Châteaudun.
File:Rue de la Victoire Paris.jpg, Site plan with the planned extension of the Rue Ollivier (now Rue de Châteaudun) through the Hôtel Bonaparte.

Considering the appreciation with which Emperor Napoléon III treated the legacy of his uncle Emperor Napoléon I, it was difficult for his contemporaries to understand why he allowed the demolition of the Hôtel Bonaparte. Before the house's demolition, parts of the interior design were removed and sold and later reinstalled in other properties, including those belonging to the family de Rothschild, but also in other houses belonging to the family Bonaparte. These include the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and the former Parisian townhouse of Roland Bonaparte at 10 Avenue d'Iéna, which opened in 2010 as the luxury Hôtel Shangri-La Paris.

The former access to the Hôtel Bonaparte from the Rue de la Victoire now corresponds roughly to the address 60 Rue de la Victoire, whereas the house itself was located closer to 49 and 51 Rue de Châteaudun.

References

Further reading

In alphabetical order
* Elisabeth Caude, Christophe Pincemaille, collectif: ''Joséphine et Napoléon, l'Hôtel de la rue de la Victoire,'' catalogue de l'exposition tenue au Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et Bois-Préau (15 octobre 2013 – 6 janvier 2014), RMN Éditions, Paris, 2013
* Gabrielle Claerr Stamm: ''De Soleure à Paris : La saga de la famille de Besenval, seigneurs de Brunstatt, Riedisheim et Didenheim,'' Société d'Histoire du Sundgau, 2015
* Jean-Jacques Fiechter: ''Le Baron Pierre-Victor de Besenval,'' Delachaux et Niestlé, Lausanne – Paris, 1993
* Jean-Jacques Fiechter: ''Baron Peter Viktor von Besenval: Ein Solothurner am Hofe von Versailles,'' Rothus Verlag, Solothurn, 1994

External links

''Virtual three-dimensional reconstruction of the Hôtel Bonaparte in Paris,''
The Bonaparte couple's first home

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hotel Bonaparte
Houses completed in 1780
9th arrondissement of Paris
Victoire
Hôtels particuliers in Paris
Monuments historiques of Paris
Napoleon
Joséphine de Beauharnais
Architects from Paris
Barons Haussmann