Hôtel Biron
Encyclopedia
The Hôtel Biron is an hôtel particulier
in the rue de Varenne, Paris VIIème
, that was built by Jacques Gabriel
and his associate designer Jean Aubert
, in 1728-31 Since 1919 it has housed the Musée Auguste Rodin
.
The hôtel was built for a peruke-maker, Abraham Peyrenc de Moras, who had speculated successfully in the ill-fated paper money schemes of John Law
that had ruined many, at a time when the Faubourg Saint-Germain
was still suburban in character. His house, the most superb in the neighborhood, was built as a free-standing structure, not built entre cour et jardin, "between entrance court and garden" with party walls against adjoining buildings, as hôtels in more densely-built quarters of Paris have traditionally been built since the seventeenth century. The house is still surrounded by three hectares/7.3 acres of grounds. The house had boiseries carved in the full-blown rococo
manner and has two elliptical salons that form attached pavilions at the corners of the garden front. There were sixteen medallions or overdoor paintings by François Lemoyne
, premier peintre du roi, enframed in the panelling. The Hôtel Peyrenc de Moras, as it then was, was completed in 1731, just a year before Peyrenc's death. His widow sold the house to the duchesse du Maine
, who had married a natural son of Louis XIV
; she took possession in January 1737 (Kimball loc. cit.) and made some minor changes. Upon the death of the duchess in 1753, the mansion became the property of the maréchal de Biron
, hero of Fontenoy
, whose name it has carried. A plan of the house and gardens as they were in 1752 shows the deep terrace at the rear with a few wide bowed steps that led to matching parterre
s containing shaped compartments set in gravel and surrounded by shrubs tightly clipped in cones which flanked a wide central gravel walk. To the left of the deep cour d'honneur
and entered from it, neatly-clipped cabinets de verdure —small open-air rooms and recesses in fanciful shapes, connected by short galleries— were cut into solid greenery. On the right hand of the court was a subsidiary stable courtyard. Soon the gardens were swept away by the duc de Biron, in favour of a miniature park à l'Anglaise, achieved with trelliswork. When the "comte du Nord", the future Paul I of Russia
, and his countess, who were travelling technically incognito for pleasure, visited Paris in 1782, they toured the garden, "which is one of the wonders of Paris, admiring the beauty of the flowers and the variety of the borders. They walked among the flower beds and the shrubberies, marvelling at the boldness and elegance of the trellis work forming gateways, arcades, grottoes, domes, Chinese pavilions..."
By the end of the eighteenth century, the faubourg was becoming demodé, with the westward development of fashionable Paris on the Rive Droite
. The duc de Biron's heir, Armand Louis de Gontaut
, duc de Lauzun, was guillotined in 1793. During Napoleon's reign, the Hôtel de Biron was the seat of the Papal legate and then of the Russian ambassador. In 1820 it was given to the Société du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus, whose Dames du Sacre-Coeur, dedicated to the education of young women, converted the hotel into a boarding school for girls from aristocratic families, and stripped the house of all luxuries, mirrors and boiseries and added a chapel.
Under the 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State
, however, the school was forced to close. The house was subdivided into lodgings, and plans were afoot to demolish the mansion entirely and replace it by a block of flats. Auguste Rodin rented several rooms on the ground floor in which to store his sculptures. The rooms became his studio; there he worked and entertained friends among the overgrown gardens.
In 1909, Rodin, at the height of his fame, began to agitate for the Hôtel Biron to become a museum of his work. He made a bequest of his property, his archives and the contents of his studio at the time of his death, and the French government accepted in 1916. The museum opened in 1919.
Since World War II, the Musée Rodin has been able to buy back boiseries and decorative paintings formerly in the house, which were stripped out by the Dames du Sacre-Coeur and sold. Recently the museum was able to buy two of Lemoyne's overdoors, Venus Showing Cupid the Ardour of his Arrows and the Labours of Penelope, and restore them to their original positions.
Hôtel particulier
In French contexts an hôtel particulier is an urban "private house" of a grand sort. Whereas an ordinary maison was built as part of a row, sharing party walls with the houses on either side and directly fronting on a street, an hôtel particulier was often free-standing, and by the 18th century it...
in the rue de Varenne, Paris VIIème
VIIe arrondissement
The 7th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. It includes some of Paris's major tourist attractions, such as the Eiffel Tower and the Hôtel des Invalides , and a concentration of such world famous museums as the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée du quai...
, that was built by Jacques Gabriel
Jacques Gabriel
Jacques Gabriel was a French architect, the father of the famous Ange-Jacques Gabriel.His mother was a cousin of Jules Hardouin-Mansart and his father, another Jacques Gabriel was a masonry contractor for the Bâtiments du Roi, the French royal works, and the designer of the Château de Choisy for...
and his associate designer Jean Aubert
Jean Aubert the Elder
Jean Aubert the Elder, was a French architect, "responsible for many fine interiors but not a leader of the first rank."...
, in 1728-31 Since 1919 it has housed the Musée Auguste Rodin
Musée Rodin
The Musée Rodin in Paris, France, is a museum that was opened in 1919 in the Hôtel Biron and surrounding grounds. It displays works by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin....
.
The hôtel was built for a peruke-maker, Abraham Peyrenc de Moras, who had speculated successfully in the ill-fated paper money schemes of John Law
John Law (economist)
John Law was a Scottish economist who believed that money was only a means of exchange that did not constitute wealth in itself and that national wealth depended on trade...
that had ruined many, at a time when the Faubourg Saint-Germain
Paris districts
Most of the Paris we see today is a result of a nineteenth-century renovation, but its boulevards and arrondissements were but a new grid bisecting quarters built by centuries of Parisian habit; as a result of this, Paris has many quarters that are not necessarily mentioned on any administrative...
was still suburban in character. His house, the most superb in the neighborhood, was built as a free-standing structure, not built entre cour et jardin, "between entrance court and garden" with party walls against adjoining buildings, as hôtels in more densely-built quarters of Paris have traditionally been built since the seventeenth century. The house is still surrounded by three hectares/7.3 acres of grounds. The house had boiseries carved in the full-blown rococo
Rococo
Rococo , also referred to as "Late Baroque", is an 18th-century style which developed as Baroque artists gave up their symmetry and became increasingly ornate, florid, and playful...
manner and has two elliptical salons that form attached pavilions at the corners of the garden front. There were sixteen medallions or overdoor paintings by François Lemoyne
François Lemoyne
François Lemoyne or François Le Moine was a French rococo painter.He was born in Paris. In 1701, when he was 13 years old, he entered the Académie de peinture et de sculpture. He studied under Louis Galloche and stayed until 1713. In 1711, Lemoyne won the Prix de Rome...
, premier peintre du roi, enframed in the panelling. The Hôtel Peyrenc de Moras, as it then was, was completed in 1731, just a year before Peyrenc's death. His widow sold the house to the duchesse du Maine
Anne, Duchess of Maine
Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon , was the daughter of Henri Jules de Bourbon, prince de Condé and Anne Henriette of Bavaria. As a member of the reigning House of Bourbon, she was a princesse du sang. She was known as Louise-Bénédicte. She has no surviving descendants...
, who had married a natural son of Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
; she took possession in January 1737 (Kimball loc. cit.) and made some minor changes. Upon the death of the duchess in 1753, the mansion became the property of the maréchal de Biron
Louis Antoine de Gontaut
Louis Antoine de Gontaut-Biron, duc de Biron was Duke of Biron and a French military leader who served with distinction under Louis XV, and was made a Marshal of France in 1757....
, hero of Fontenoy
Battle of Fontenoy
The Battle of Fontenoy, 11 May 1745, was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought between the forces of the Pragmatic Allies – comprising mainly Dutch, British, and Hanoverian troops under the nominal command of the Duke of Cumberland – and a French army under Maurice de...
, whose name it has carried. A plan of the house and gardens as they were in 1752 shows the deep terrace at the rear with a few wide bowed steps that led to matching parterre
Parterre
A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all...
s containing shaped compartments set in gravel and surrounded by shrubs tightly clipped in cones which flanked a wide central gravel walk. To the left of the deep cour d'honneur
Cour d'Honneur
Cour d'Honneur is the architectural term for defining a three-sided courtyard, created when the main central block, or corps de logis, is flanked by symmetrical advancing secondary wings, containing minor rooms...
and entered from it, neatly-clipped cabinets de verdure —small open-air rooms and recesses in fanciful shapes, connected by short galleries— were cut into solid greenery. On the right hand of the court was a subsidiary stable courtyard. Soon the gardens were swept away by the duc de Biron, in favour of a miniature park à l'Anglaise, achieved with trelliswork. When the "comte du Nord", the future Paul I of Russia
Paul I of Russia
Paul I was the Emperor of Russia between 1796 and 1801. He also was the 72nd Prince and Grand Master of the Order of Malta .-Childhood:...
, and his countess, who were travelling technically incognito for pleasure, visited Paris in 1782, they toured the garden, "which is one of the wonders of Paris, admiring the beauty of the flowers and the variety of the borders. They walked among the flower beds and the shrubberies, marvelling at the boldness and elegance of the trellis work forming gateways, arcades, grottoes, domes, Chinese pavilions..."
By the end of the eighteenth century, the faubourg was becoming demodé, with the westward development of fashionable Paris on the Rive Droite
Rive Droite
La Rive Droite is most associated with the river Seine in central Paris. Here the river flows roughly westwards, cutting the city into two: looking downstream, the northern bank is to the right, and the southern bank is to the left....
. The duc de Biron's heir, Armand Louis de Gontaut
Armand Louis de Gontaut
Armand Louis de Gontaut, Duc de Lauzun, later duc de Biron, and usually referred to by historians of the French Revolution simply as Biron was a French soldier and politician, known for the part he played in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.-Early titles:Born in...
, duc de Lauzun, was guillotined in 1793. During Napoleon's reign, the Hôtel de Biron was the seat of the Papal legate and then of the Russian ambassador. In 1820 it was given to the Société du Sacré-Coeur de Jésus, whose Dames du Sacre-Coeur, dedicated to the education of young women, converted the hotel into a boarding school for girls from aristocratic families, and stripped the house of all luxuries, mirrors and boiseries and added a chapel.
Under the 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State
1905 French law on the separation of Church and State
The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and State was passed by the Chamber of Deputies on 9 December 1905. Enacted during the Third Republic, it established state secularism in France...
, however, the school was forced to close. The house was subdivided into lodgings, and plans were afoot to demolish the mansion entirely and replace it by a block of flats. Auguste Rodin rented several rooms on the ground floor in which to store his sculptures. The rooms became his studio; there he worked and entertained friends among the overgrown gardens.
In 1909, Rodin, at the height of his fame, began to agitate for the Hôtel Biron to become a museum of his work. He made a bequest of his property, his archives and the contents of his studio at the time of his death, and the French government accepted in 1916. The museum opened in 1919.
Since World War II, the Musée Rodin has been able to buy back boiseries and decorative paintings formerly in the house, which were stripped out by the Dames du Sacre-Coeur and sold. Recently the museum was able to buy two of Lemoyne's overdoors, Venus Showing Cupid the Ardour of his Arrows and the Labours of Penelope, and restore them to their original positions.
Further reading
- Rodin: Le musée et ses collections (Scala, Paris) 1996.