Hôtel de Besenval

This was also a consequence of the French Revolution, when many of these hôtels particuliers, offering large reception rooms with gilded panelling and exquisite decoration, were confiscated and turned into national institutions.

Delamair, in turn, commissioned the building contractor Guillaume Delavergne († 1710) on 4 June 1704, on behalf of the abbé, to carry out his plans for the new residence, with the total costs estimated at 31,000 livres.

This sum was set on 19 March 1710 by a commission of experts after a site visit, as the relationship between the people involved in the construction was no longer the best at that time due to financial disputes.

But then Brice praises: "The apartments enjoy an advantageous view and the house, actually built in a rather light way, does not fail to provide several amenities, which make the residence pleasant.

L'Amour le voyant mort, dit : « Bon, ceci faisait un endroit de délice, À mes mystères tout propices, J'y veux loger un baron suisse, Il y célébrera mon nom » ;

Jean Victor de Besenval was a descendant from a family originally from Torgnon in the Aosta Valley, which had risen socially in the service of King Louis XIV and had received a title of baron (Reichsfreiherren) of the Holy Roman Empire from Emperor Leopold I in 1695.

Furthermore, already in February 1655, Martin de Besenval (1600–1660), Jean Victor's grandfather, was ennobled by King Louis XIV and raised to the knighthood in 1658 in gratitude for his merit for the French crown.

Jean Victor de Besenval's closest ally at the court of King Augustus II the Strong was Maria Magdalena Bielińska, div.

Katarzyna, Baronne de Besenval, née Bielińska, became almost overnight an important figure at the royal court of France when, on 15 August 1725, King Louis XV married Marie Leszczyńska, her cousin, at least that's the rumour that's been spread.

[46][47][48] At the beginning of the 1780s, it was the reign of King Louis XVI with his wife Queen Marie-Antoinette at his side, the art-loving baron could already look back on an impressive military career.

He reports: "A larger-than-life naiad, lying and leaning on her urn, is placed between the free-standing columns on an oval-shaped pedestal; a large bronze mask, which is adapted to it, provides this pool with hot and cold water."

"By 1789, at the dawn of the French Revolution, Pierre Victor de Besenval had accumulated the prestigious and influential positions of Lieutenant-Général of the King's armies, Lieutenant-Colonel of the Swiss Guards Regiment and Commandant en chef of the troops and garrisons in the interior of France with the exception of the city of Paris.

His popularity certainly had something to do with the fact that on 19 February 1781, Jacques Necker made the state finances public for the first time in the history of France in his report: The Compte rendu au Roi.

Amongst others, he received Gouverneur Morris, the future Ambassador of the United States of America to France, on 17 November, to whom the baron reported that he is convinced that a counter-revolution will soon take place.

Maître Jean-Jacques Grandin, commissioner of the prison court of the Grand Châtelet from 1782 to 1791, accompanied by two witnesses, went to the Hôtel de Besenval to seal all the baron's filing cabinets and his writing desk in order to secure evidence.

Saved from the guillotine and released from prison, the baron returned that same day to his residence on the Rue de Grenelle, protected by the Swiss Guards and escorted by a crowd of friends.

In his Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe, published in 1849 and 1850, he commented cynically on Pierre Victor de Besenval's acquittal: "This incriminated baron, compromised in the affair of the Bastille and saved by M. Necker and by Mirabeau just because he was Swiss: What misery!

Also most of the other objects visible in the portrait can be identified and sometimes even traced back to their whereabouts, like the three pieces of green Chinese celadon porcelain mounted with French gilt-bronze and placed on the mantelpiece.

The most valuable piece of furniture in the baron's collection was a commode à vantaux made in 1778 by Martin Carlin in ebony inset with precious pietra dura panels, signed by Gian Ambrogio Giachetti, a Florentine lapidary who worked at the Gobelins Manufactory between 1670 and 1675.

In the aftermath of World War I, parts of the Hôtel de Besenval served from 1936 to 1938 as the seat of various international arbitral tribunals provided for in the peace treaties.

However, already during the baron's lifetime some pieces of furniture as well as paintings and further works of art from the Hôtel de Besenval were sent to his country estate in Switzerland, the Schloss Waldegg.

According to oral tradition, shortly before the French Revolution, the baron also sent a furniture ensemble to Switzerland, consisting of a sofa and six chairs painted in the so-called gris Trianon (a colour named after the Petit Trianon) and covered in beige fabric and embroidered with scenes from the fables of Jean de La Fontaine, except for the sofa, which is covered with a pattern of flowers and birds.

It depicts the moment when King Louis XIV, the only non-clergyman allowed to wear a hat, and the envoys of the Confederation of the XIII cantons take an oath together on the Bible in the presence of Cardinal Antonio Barberini and over 150 dignitaries.

[163][178][179] "This treaty brought France and the Swiss so many political and economic advantages that it was repeatedly renewed with minor expansions by the French kings François I to Louis XIV in 1663.

[181] The idea of depicting the main events in the life of King Louis XIV in the medium of the tapestry goes back to Jean Chapelain, an adviser to Jean-Baptiste Colbert.

Since the royal court had a great interest in ensuring that as many people as possible knew about these glorious events, engravings of the individual tapestries were later made, which were widely distributed and glorified and shaped the image of the king in France as well as abroad.

"The last major construction work on the Hôtel de Besenval, which is a classic example of a so-called residence entre cour et jardin (between courtyard and garden), dates back to the end of the 1990s.

In order for these renovations to be carried out efficiently and for embassy operations to continue running smoothly, it was necessary for some of the offices to be relocated to a temporary facility at 26 Rue Villiot for 18 months from April 1998.

Furthermore, the work also included, amongst others, the renovation of the façades and the roof, the redesign of the commercial kitchen, the repair of the sanitary facilities and the heating as well as the adaptation of the general electrical installations to today's standards.

In addition to the Swiss athletes and a large number of international guests, Ambassador Roberto Balzaretti welcomed personalities from sports, politics, business and culture to the House of Switzerland, including Viola Amherd, President of the Swiss Confederation, Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, Federal Councillor Élisabeth Baume-Schneider, Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, and Jackie Chan.

The Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour on the Turgot map of Paris (sheet 16) in 1737 (parcelle n° 19) . At the crossroad next to the allée are also the buildings of the former Couvent de Sainte-Valère visible. The church of the convent was auctioned off in 1838 and then demolished to be incorporated into the new Hôtel de Monaco , built for banker William Williams-Hope, Baron Hope (1802–1855). Today the Hôtel de Monaco houses the residence of the Ambassador of Poland . [ 3 ]
The historical façade of the corps de logis of the single-floor residence Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour, later called Hôtel de Besenval, towards the courtyard, according to the plans of 1704 by Pierre-Alexis Delamair (engraving from 1727 by Jean Mariette ).
Plan of the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour from 1727 by Jean Mariette , which, however, is likely to be largely identical to the original plan from 1704 by Delamair (the original plan is considered lost). Visible are the ground floors of the corps de logis as well as of the outbuildings around the cour d'honneur and the basse-cour. The garden was on different levels at the time.
The historical façade of the corps de logis of the single-floor residence Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour, later called Hôtel de Besenval, towards the garden, according to the plans of 1704 by Pierre-Alexis Delamair (engraving from 1727 by Jean Mariette ). The architectural arrangement with the free-standing figures and vases on the roof cornice was criticised by Germain Brice .
Joseph Marie de Boufflers, Duc de Boufflers et Comte de Ponches et d'Estauges , who resided with his wife Madeleine Angélique, Duchesse de Boufflers, née de Neufville de Villeroy , in the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour in 1737 and possibly even some more years. Portrait of the duc by Jean-Marc Nattier .
Bought the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour in 1750: Louis-Guy de Guérapin, Baron de Vauréal et Comte de Belleval , Évêque de Rennes . When he was stationed in Madrid as French ambassador in 1745, King Philip V made him a grandee . The date 1749 that appears in his portrait corresponds to that of his election to the Académie Française (seat 23), replacing the deceased Évêque de Strasbourg , Armand Gaston de Rohan-Guéméné (1674–1749). [ 19 ]
A view that has not changed since 1704: Enfilade from the Salon des perroquets via the vestibule to the entrance gate of the Hôtel de Besenval. It was Louis-Guy de Guérapin de Vauréal who enlarged the vestibule to its current size.
Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, in armour , portrayed by Jean-Marc Nattier in 1766, after having received the Order of Saint Louis . Today this portrait is part of the collections of the Hermitage Museum .
Louise-Anne, Marquise de Ségur, née de Vernon (1729–1778), wife of Maréchal Philippe Henri, Marquis de Ségur . The Marquise de Ségur was Pierre Victor de Besenval's favorite mistress and the mother of his only child. At the same time, the Marquis de Ségur was Besenval's military comrade and his best friend. Painted by Louis Carrogis Carmontelle in 1763.
Pierre Victor's father: Jean Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt , a Swiss military officer, politician and diplomate in French service. He served as French ambassador to Sweden, Poland and the Nordic countries, which was exceptional given that he was not French. And yet he enjoyed the trust of King Louis XIV and Philippe II de Bourbon, Duc d'Orléans et Régent de France (1715–1723). Portrayed by Nicolas de Largillière in 1720. [ 35 ]
Paved the way for her son's French career: Katarzyna, Baronne de Besenval de Brunstatt, née Bielińska (1684–1761), Pierre Victor's mother. While Voltaire conceded wit and modesty to her, Jean-Jacques Rousseau considered her stubborn and too conceited. Rousseau felt insulted by the Baronne de Besenval and remarked: "The only person who received me badly, and from whom I would have least expected this injustice, was Madame de Besenval." Portrayed by Nicolas de Largillière in 1720. [ 35 ] [ 36 ] [ 37 ]
The nymphaeum as it appeared at the end of the 19th century (all decorative elements were removed in 1822). The symmetry of the rectangular room was emphasised by the four niches in the corners with vases by Claude Michel . In addition, there was one of Claude Michel's two large reliefs on the north and south wall respectively (in this drawing already replaced by the baron's relocated commemorative plaque). Two original by Claude Michel signed rectangular terracotta preparatory reliefs for the decoration of the baron's nymphaeum were rediscovered and sold by Christie's in New York on 20 October 2022 as lot 35 in the sale The Ann & Gordon Getty Collection for US$252,000. One depicting Venus and Cupid , Salmacis and Hermaphroditus and Leda and the Swan , the other depicting The Bath of Venus (the latter was eventually replaced by a different design). The lot was bought by Daniel Katz Ltd, London. [ 49 ]
Cutaway drawing showing the nymphaeum in 1782, as designed by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart and artistically decorated by Claude Michel . On the wall, between the two niches with the vases, one of the two large reliefs, made of Pierre de Tonnerre, by Claude Michel, depicting Venus and Cupid , Salmacis and Hermaphroditus and Leda and the Swan . The second one, on the opposite side, depicting Pan pursuing Syrinx under de gaze of Cupid (as can be seen separately above the drawing). On the far left: The now considered lost larger-than-life naiad , called La Source, on her oval-shaped pedestal. In addition to the nymphaeum itself, contemporaries were also impressed by the floating staircase that led there. This staircase was lost over time during the various structural alteration works.
Detail of Brongniart's plan for the nymphaeum with the now considered lost larger-than-life naiad , called La Source, on her oval-shaped pedestal, showing the gargoyle in the form of a mask made of bronze.
The commemorative plaque for the nymphaeum was commissioned by the Baron de Besenval himself.
The remains of the nymphaeum in the basement of the Hôtel de Besenval as seen in 2018 (measurements of the surface area: 13.00 m x 6.00 m). The slightly different colours of the floor plates still indicate the location of the former pool . The elliptical pool was 3.50 meters in diameter and was surrounded by 12 Doric columns, four of which were free-standing. [ 49 ]
Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart . In 1782, he built the Baron de Besenval's nymphaeum, the most famous private bath in 18th century Paris.
Negotiations on the plank: On 14 July 1789, on the orders of the Governor of the Bastille , Bernard-René Jourdan, Marquis de Launay , Ludwig von Flüe , the commanding officer of the Swiss Guards in the defense of the Bastille , handed over the letter of capitulation with the governor's demands to Stanislas-Marie Maillard through one of the holes he had made in the drawbridge of the Bastille. On the other side of the drawbridge Stanislas-Marie Maillard climbed onto a plank above the dry moat to fetch the document. However, Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay's demands were not met by the revolutionaries. At 5:30 pm the Bastille was stormed and Bernard-René Jourdan de Launay lost his head. [ 67 ]
Charles-Philippe de France, Comte d'Artois , the king's brother and Colonel Général of the Swiss Guards and the Grisons Troops in the uniform of the Swiss Guards. After his duel in the Bois de Boulogne on the morning of 16 March 1778 with the Duc de Bourbon over an Incident at the Opera Ball on Mardi Gras , he dined later that day with the Duc de Polignac , the Chevalier de Crussol and the Baron de Besenval at the Hôtel de Besenval and thanked all of them for having helped to prevent a real duel with the Duc de Bourbon. [ 68 ]
July 1789: The Baron de Besenval's troops in the courtyard of the École militaire on the Champ de Mars , consisting of the Swiss regiments de Diesbach , de Châteauvieux and de Salis-Samade as well as the French hussar regiments de Berchény and de Chamborant . After the looting of Les Invalides and the Taking of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 by the revolutionaries, the baron's troops hastily withdrew on the night of 14 to 15 July.
The looting of the weapons at Les Invalides on 14 July 1789, after the Baron de Besenval had withdrawn his troops on 12 July from central Paris. These weapons were used later that day in the Taking of the Bastille by revolutionary insurgents.
The Baron de Besenval was taken to the partially destroyed Château de Brie-Comte-Robert for imprisonment. The baron always referred to it as the "horrible cachot" (horrible dungeon).
The Baron de Besenval made headlines for months in the Journal de Paris . The public took a keen interest in the trial against the Swiss baron.
Excerpt from the Journal de Paris, no. 343, Wednesday, 9 December 1789: L'affaire de Monsieur de Besenval, report after the baron's second interrogation on 3 December.
Excerpt from the Journal de Paris, no. 225, Friday, 13 August 1790: Acquittal on Monday, 1 March 1790 – The Baron de Besenval is acquitted of the crime of lèse-nation . [ 87 ]
Pierre Victor de Besenval as a courtier around 1780, etching by Louis Carrogis Carmontelle .
Chambre du maître, the former bedroom of the Baron de Besenval, where he died on 2 June 1791 in the arms of Victor von Gibelin . The room has four overdoors with grisaille painting by Jules Didier , after engravings by François Boucher , showing landscape scenes with sheep, birds and putti , interpreting the three seasons autumn, winter and spring. The fourth overdoor is dedicated to love. Parts of the wood panelling are original with later additions of panels from the Louis XV period and the last quarter of the 19th century. Today the room is called Salon des ministres. The baron's writing table, dating in parts from around 1720 and remodelled by the ebeniste E. J. Cuvellier around 1765, was placed in this room. On 25 May 2021, this bureau plat was sold by Christie's in London as lot 30 in the sale Collection Baroness Marion Lambert for EUR462,500. [ 103 ] [ 56 ] [ 104 ] [ 105 ] [ 106 ]
Excerpt from the auction catalogue of the sale of the Besenval collection on 10 August 1795 ( 23 thermidor, an 3ème ), conducted by Alexandre Joseph Paillet . For reasons of discretion and out of consideration for the difficult political situation for the nobility at the time, Pierre Victor de Besenval's name is deliberately not mentioned.
Installed by Pierre Victor de Besenval (originally in the Grand cabinet ): The large and unique marble stove decorated with gilt bronzes made by Pierre Gouthière in the vestibule of the Hôtel de Besenval. Photographed just before World War I . Only a few years later it was dismantled and sold. In the late 1990s the stove was with the Galerie Kraemer of Paris. The gallery later sold it to a customer in the United States for FRF 4,500,000 (then ~US$800,000). [ 113 ] [ 114 ]
Detail of the now lost neo Louis XV ceiling of the Chambre du maître, photographed around 1910.
Le Baron de Besenval dans son salon de compagnie at the Hôtel de Besenval, the iconic portrait of the baron by Henri-Pierre Danloux from 1791 (the year of the baron's death). A preparatory drawing of this portrait shows the baron seated with his face and upper body turned toward the viewer instead of the profile view. By changing the pose from frontal to profile, Danloux focuses the attention less on the sitter himself and more on the objects in the room, putting not Besenval himself in the limelight but his passion as a collector. On 27 May 2004, this portrait of the baron was sold by Sotheby's in New York as lot 35 for US$2,472,000. Today the portrait is part of the collections of the National Gallery , which acquired the painting from the London art market in 2004 for GBP1,600,434.63 (from Daniel Katz Ltd and Simon Dickinson Ltd). This room, the Salon de compagnie, was probably lost over time during the various structural alteration works. However, there is speculation as to whether this room could be identical to the Salon de la tapisserie. [ 119 ] [ 120 ] [ 121 ]
Once the most valuable piece of furniture at the Hôtel de Besenval: The Baron de Besenval's commode à vantaux from 1778 by Martin Carlin , once commissioned by Dominique Daguerre . The reused, probably once royal, 17th century pietra dura panels are signed by the Florentine lapidary Gian Ambrogio Giachetti. Pieces like this would fetch over a million euros at auction today. Photographed in the 1920s in the Green Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace . [ 130 ] [ 131 ]
Bought the Hôtel de Besenval in 1797: The widow Marie-Elisabeth-Olive Guigues, Comtesse de Moreton de Chabrillan (1761–1807), heiress to the Château de Digoine in Palinges . The comtesse was portrayed by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun in 1782.
The entrance hall of the Château de Digoine as it appeared at the end of the 19th century. Visible are the following works of art by Claude Michel which he produced for the nymphaeum of the Hôtel de Besenval: The relief showing Pan pursuing Syrinx under de gaze of Cupid (embedded in the wall on the left), one of the four vases (on a pedestal column at the top of the stairs) and the masterpiece: The now considered lost larger-than-life naiad , called La Source, on her original oval-shaped pedestal (the pedestal has apparently been rotated 180 degrees so that the gargoyle cannot be seen on this photo). The benches with paw feet were also part of the nymphaeum's furnishings.
View from the Salon de la tapisserie with its mirrored doors to the Salon des perroquets and further to the Salon des ministres (La chambre du maître). The Salon des perroquets is named after the painting with a parrot in the trumeau mirror above the fireplace and after the paintings on the overdoors which show parrots as well. These paintings were all installed in the last quarter of the 19th century. It was in this room, where the Baron de Besenval had gathered his guests for dinner on 16 March 1778 in the course of the affair: An Incident at the Opera Ball on Mardi Gras in 1778 .
View from the vestibule with its 18th century wood panelling à la capucine to the Salon des perroquets. To the left and right of the door are the portraits of Jacques Necker , who saved Besenval's neck, and his wife Suzanne Curchod . The wood panelling was originally painted.
On the afternoon of 8 March 1938, Walter Stucki , the designated Envoy of the Swiss Confederation to France (right), and the French Foreign Minister Yvon Delbos (left) met for talks in Delbos' office at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs . On this occasion, Stucki presented Delbos with a copy of his Lettres de créance , which Stucki later presented to the President of the French Republic, Albert Lebrun . One of the topics of conversation that afternoon was the relocation of the Swiss Legation to the Hôtel de Besenval. A few days later the world looked very different. On 10 March, the Government Chautemps IV under Prime Minister Camille Chautemps resigned and Delbos was no longer foreign minister. On 12 March, the Anschluss Österreichs took place. It was the eve of World War II.
The relocation of the Swiss Legation to the Rue de Grenelle in 1938 made international headlines. At this time war was in the air and the international press was closely following what neutral Switzerland was doing. It was no surprise that The New York Times reported on the relocation of the Swiss Legation to the Hôtel de Besenval even before the notarial certification of the purchase of the shares had taken place, as it was no secret among the diplomatic and the political circles that the purchase negotiations had been ongoing since 1937. First under the leadership of the Swiss envoy Alphonse Dunant (1869–1942) and then under his successor Walter Stucki .
The garden façade of the Hôtel de Besenval in the winter of 1938. The year the Swiss Confederation bought the property.
The main entrance of the Hôtel de Besenval around 1939. The new monumental entrance portal, designed by the architects Moreillon & Taillens after the design of the entrance portal of the Hôtel de Soubise , has already been completed. The inscription Légation de Suisse was later removed when the legation was upgraded to an embassy in 1957.
Ambassador Agostino Soldati (left) and Cultural Attaché Bernard Barbey in the garden of the Hôtel de Besenval, surrounded by Alberto Giacometti's sculptures during the exhibition in 1963.
Loyal to the End: The Massacre of the Swiss Guards (in red uniform coats) during the Storming of the Palais des Tuileries on 10 August 1792. It is estimated that up to 700 Swiss Guards were killed. The Swiss Guards were assigned to the direct protection of the sovereign and his residences and were also custodians of the King's Seals and the French Crown Jewels .
It was in 1782, when the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart transformed the Grand cabinet at the Hôtel de Besenval into what was then a novelty: A dining room in the neoclassical style , painted in mint green and decorated with overdoor reliefs imitating the decorative style of Pompei and Herculaneum . One showing the Dance of The Bacchae , the other the Toilette of Venus . The Baron de Besenval was a pioneer of what is now called gastrodiplomacy . Like his contemporary Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord , Prince de Benevento et de Talleyrand , the baron was also convinced that diplomacy goes through the stomach. [ 161 ] [ 13 ] [ 162 ]
Salon de l'alcôve , also called Le Boudoir , at the Hôtel de Besenval. A richly decorated room in white and gold, showing four medallion paintings in the style of François Boucher . The painting La Gimblette hung in this room. The bookshelves now serve as display cases. [ 54 ]
The enfilade at the Hôtel de Besenval with the view from the dining room to the Salon de la tapisserie to the Salon des perroquets. In the window niche is one of the six chairs of the baron's original furniture ensemble visible. It was Ambassador Agostino Soldati , called Tino, and his wife Marguerite Soldati-André-Thome, Comtesse André de Contades (1907–2001), called Daisy, who began to furnish the Hôtel de Besenval with antiques on a large scale in the early 1960s, amongst others with the help of the Galerie Kraemer of Paris and partly paid for by Swiss industrialists.
Théodora Élisabeth Catherine, Marquise de Broglie, née de Besenval de Brunstatt (1718–1777), sister of Pierre Victor de Besenval, who acted as lady of the house at the Hôtel de Besenval, after she had separated from her husband Charles Guillaume Louis, Marquis de Broglie (1716–1786). Portrayed by Jean-Marc Nattier in 1742. Today this portrait is part of the collections of the Nationalmuseum .
The coat of arms of Théodora Élisabeth Catherine, Marquise de Broglie, née de Besenval de Brunstatt (1718–1777).
The Alliance Tapestry (3.87 m x 5.85 m) in the Salon de la tapisserie at the Hôtel de Besenval. In the foreground are King Louis XIV (right) and Johann Heinrich Waser , a Swiss politician, Mayor of Zürich and Bailiff of the County of Kyburg . Waser was the head of the Swiss delegation. Behind the king stands his brother Philippe de France, Duc d'Orléans , holding his hat in his hand. Behind Johann Heinrich Waser stands Anton von Graffenried , the Envoy of the Canton of Bern . The wood panelling of the Salon de la tapisserie largely dates from the second half of the 19th century.
The Salon de la tapisserie as it was set up in 2018. In addition to part of the Alliance Tapestry, four of the six chairs from the baron's original furniture ensemble can be seen next to the fireplace.
Detail of the Alliance Tapestry: It shows the French ambassador Jean de La Barde (1602–1692) among the Swiss delegation with the written copy of the renewed alliance in his hand.
The cour d'honneur of the Hôtel de Besenval with the main entrance to the corps de logis , the residence of the Swiss ambassador to France .
The garden façade of the Hôtel de Besenval. The garden adjoins that of the Hôtel de Monaco , which houses the residence of the Ambassador of Poland to France.
L'ordonnance de M. le Baron de Besenval – or the follies of the Baron de Besenval: It was Pierre Victor de Besenval who commissioned the new garden design for the Château de Romainville, based on his designs for his own gardens, in particular the garden of the Hôtel de Besenval. [ 189 ]
In the service of gastrodiplomacy : The Baron de Besenval's former nymphaeum after its renovation and transformation into a wine cellar in 2024. In the niche on the right hand side is the red painted replica of Claude Michel's vase visible (the original measures 1.10 m and is part of the collections of the Louvre ). The figure in the opposite niche shows a large corkscrew.
The frontispiece of the first edition of the memoirs of the Baron de Besenval showing his portrait. The memoirs were published by Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur , between 1805 and 1806 in four volumes. The publication caused a scandal among the aristocracy, as the baron did not shy away from describing life and customs at the French royal court in the last years of the Ancien Régime in all its scandalous details, including the names of the protagonists. The family de Besenval questioned the authenticity of the memoirs and distanced themselves from them. Only a few copies of the fourth and last volume were printed.