Hôtel de Besenval

Hôtel de Besenval
Embassy of the Swiss Confederation in France
Main entrance of the Hôtel de Besenval
General information
Type	Hôtel particulier
Address	142 Rue de Grenelle
Town or city	Paris
Country	France
Current tenants	Embassy of the Swiss Confederation
Construction started	1704
Completed	1866 (corps de logis enlarged with another floor and an attic with a comble à la Mansart)
Owner	Swiss Confederation
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Pierre-Alexis Delamair and Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart

The Hôtel de Besenval is a historic hôtel particulier in Paris with a cour d'honneur and a large English landscape garden, an architectural style commonly known as entre cour et jardin. This refers to a residence between the courtyard in front of the building and the garden at the back. The building is listed as a Monument historique by decree of 20 October 1928. It has housed the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation and the residence of the Swiss ambassador to France since 1938. The residence is named after its most famous former owner: Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, usually just referred to as Baron de Besenval.

Location

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.

The premises are at 142 Rue de Grenelle in the district of Faubourg Saint-Germain in the 7th arrondissement, opposite the Hôtel du Châtelet and close to the Hôtel des Invalides.

The gold of the Republic

The Faubourg Saint-Germain has long been known as the favourite home of the French nobility and hosts numerous aristocratic hôtels particuliers. Many of these residences later became foreign embassies and ambassadorial residences or administrative headquarters of the city of Paris or seats of ministries of France. 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. The French expression Les ors de la République (The gold of the Republic), referring to the luxurious environment of the national palaces, official residences and institutions like the Palais de l'Élysée, the Hôtel de Matignon or the Palais du Luxembourg, dates from this period. The Hôtel de Besenval was one of the few hôtels particuliers that was not confiscated because its then owner Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, was a Swiss citizen.

From the Marais to the Faubourg Saint-Germain

In the early 18th century, the French nobility started to move from the Marais, the then aristocratic district of Paris where nobles used to build their hotels particuliers, to the clearer, less populated and less polluted Faubourg Saint-Germain; an area which soon became the new residential area of France's highest ranking nobility. Families like those of the Duc d’Estrées, the Duc du Châtelet or the Duc de Noirmoutier moved there. Their former residences still bear their names today. Therefore, the instinct of the early investors was right when they bought at the beginning of the 18th century their plots of land on what would soon become one of the best addresses in Paris: The Rue de Grenelle.

History

Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour

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.

The origins of the Hôtel de Besenval go back to a single-floor residence, the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour, erected in 1704 for a man of the Church: Pierre Hélie Chanac de Pompadour, Baron de Treignac, Abbé de Vigeois, Prieur de La Valette and Prévost d'Arnac († 1710). When the construction work began, the abbé was already in his eighties. It is believed that the abbé was a descendant of the family of Guillaume V de Chanac and Guillaume de Chanac, a supporter of the Collège de Chanac Pompadour in Paris.

For the design of his new residence the abbé commissioned the celebrated architect Pierre-Alexis Delamair. Delamair, in turn, commissioned the building contractor Guillaume Delavergne († 1710) to carry out his plans for the hôtel particulier, with the total cost estimated at 31,000 livres. Additional costs of 11,953 livres and 7 sols were added later. 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.

Pierre-Alexis Delamair was very much in demand at the time. It was the same time when he was involved in two other major building projects in Paris: The remodeling of the Hôtel de Clisson, also known as the Hôtel de Guise, for François de Rohan, Prince de Soubise, which consequently became the Hôtel de Soubise, and the construction of the Hôtel de Rohan for Armand Gaston Maximilien, Prince de Rohan.

Pierre-Alexis Delamair's one-off project

Plan of the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour from 1704. 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 Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour is a special feature in Delamair's work, as it is the only single-floor hôtel particulier he ever designed. With the Hôtel Chanac de Pompaodur, Delamair also set new standards in façade architecture. The sober, linear neoclassical façade was a novelty and a contrast to the ornate façades that had prevailed up to that point. Architects who later made changes to the building always respected Delamair's basic structure and design.

In his book titled: Description de la ville de Paris et de tout ce qu’elle contient de plus remarquable (Description of the city of Paris and all that what it contains most remarkable), first published in 1684 and expanded in later editions, Germain Brice describes the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour as a pleasant place. However, he also states: "Abbé Pierre Hélie Chanac de Pompadour built a house decorated with numerous vases and figures placed in different places [the free-standing figures and vases on the roof cornice of the building]. Those who love the abundance of ornaments will like this. However, it is the clever arrangement of decorations what makes a building beautiful." 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."

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. The architectural arrangement with the free-standing figures and vases on the roof cornice was criticised by Germain Brice.

Although Jacques-François Blondel was not overly enthusiastic, he nevertheless found words of praise for the work of Pierre-Alexis Delamair in his 1752 publication on French architecture. In his widely acclaimed standard work Architecture Françoise (French Architecture), Blondel points out that at the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour the kitchen is no longer housed in the corps de logis but in a side wing to the left (west wing). An architectural arrangement that Blondel describes as an innovation. This architectural innovation had two pleasant side effects: On the one hand, it kept the kitchen odors away from the state rooms and, on the other hand, it reduced the risk of fire in the corps de logis. In addition to the kitchen, Delamair also combined the other utility rooms in the west wing, such as the servant's quarters. Furthermore, Blondel praises the generally clever room layout of the house, especially of the corps de logis, which he says can be traced back to the cleverly arranged enfilades. By this he means, on the one hand, the enfilade that connects the main entrance, the vestibule and the Sallon servant de salle à manger (F) and ultimately leads to the garden (south to north) and, on the other hand, the enfilade that connects the three state rooms, the Sallon servant de salle à manger (F), the Chambre de parade (D) and the Grand cabinet (E) (west to east). The two enfilades intersect in the Sallon servant de salle à manger (F), which is now called the Salon des perroquets. Around the so-called basse-cour (the small inner courtyard with the farm buildings) on the east side of the cour d'honneur, Delamair grouped the stables, the tack room, the coach houses and the hen house.

Despite all the recognition for the architectural innovations, Blondel also expresses criticism. For him, the façade decorations are not coordinated well enough. As for the garden façade, he finds it inexplicable why Delamair chose not to create an avant-corps with three arcade windows, just as he did when remodelling the Hôtel de Soubise. Blondel criticises: "The trumeau in the middle is intolerable. This entire façade offers enough space for an avant-corps with three arcade windows, which would have been preferable to the two rounded French windows now visible."

A scandal – or L'affaire de Mademoiselle de Choiseul

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.

After the death of Abbé Pierre Hélie Chanac de Pompadour in 1710, the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour was inherited by his niece Marie Françoise Hélie de Pompadour, Marquise de Hautefort (1648–1726), and his grandniece Marie Anne Henriette d'Espinay Saint-Luc (1673–1731). Both heiresses once lived in the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour. However, they and later heirs also rented it out to various personalities, such as Joseph Marie de Boufflers, Duc de Boufflers et Comte de Ponches et d'Estauges.

On 20 September 1720, the Marquise de Hautefort bought the shares that Marie Anne Henriette d'Espinay Saint-Luc, who was married since 25 November 1715 to François, Marquis de Rochechouart et Baron du Bâtiment (1674–1742), whereupon she became the Marquise de Rochechouart, owned in the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour, setting the estimated value of the entire property at 80,000 livres. That same year, the Marquise de Hautefort and her husband François Marie de Hautefort, Marquis de Hautefort (1654–1727), moved into the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour. After the Marquise de Hautefort's death in 1726, the ownership situation became complicated due to an inheritance dispute between the designated heiress and the Marquise de Hautefort's family.

The inheritance dispute over the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour attracted a lot of public attention at the time, as the heiress appointed by the Marquise de Hautefort, Augustine Françoise de Choiseul, was at the same time involved in a long going legitimisation process to determine her biological parentage involving César Auguste de Choiseul, Duc de Choiseul et Comte de Plessis-Praslin († 1705), and his family respectively, and the powerful family on her mother's side, the family de La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière, the Ducs de La Vallière. It was one of the biggest scandals of its time and the court case – which was called L'affaire de Mademoiselle de Choiseul – was even brought before the Parlement de Paris. Augustine Françoise de Choiseul was the ward of the Marquise de Hautefort, who called her Mademoiselle de Saint-Cyr, named after the marquise's possession of Saint-Cyr-la-Roche. Finally, on 18 July 1726, she was declared daughter of Louise-Gabrielle, Duchesse de Choiseul, née de La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière (1665–1698), and of the Duc de Choiseul. Furthermore, two years later, on 7 June 1728, it was decided by an amicable settlement that the Marquise de Hautefort's niece Marie Anne Henriette, Marquise de Rochechouart, née d'Espinay Saint-Luc (1673–1731), would inherit the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour.

House of Diplomacy: The first ambassador moves in

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).

The Marquise de Rochechouart's heirs may have held the property until 1747, when they probably sold it to the widow Madeleine Angélique, Duchesse de Boufflers, née de Neufville de Villeroy, whose husband had died the same year. After her marriage on 29 June 1750 to Charles II Frédéric de Montmorency, Duc de Piney-Luxembourg, the Duchesse de Boufflers, now the Duchesse de Piney-Luxembourg, probably sold the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour in the same year to Louis-Guy de Guérapin, Baron de Vauréal et Comte de Belleval, the French ambassador in Madrid (1741–1749) and Évêque de Rennes (1732–1759).

However, depending on the source, the Duc and the Duchesse de Boufflers were also just tenants of the residence. What is certain is that the Duc and the Duchesse de Boufflers lived in the house in 1737 and that the next significant owner of the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour was Louis-Guy de Guérapin, Baron de Vauréal et Comte de Belleval, Évêque de Rennes, who bought the residence on 3 February 1750 for 90,100 livres.

The évêque was a prominent figure at the royal court during the reign of King Louis XV. Amongst others, he held the position of Maître ecclésiastique de la Chapelle du Roi (Ecclesiastical Master of the King's Chapel) from 1732 until his death in 1760. The climax of his career at the royal court, however, was his time as French ambassador in Madrid between 1741 and 1749 with a special royal order of the highest political interest. On 8 March 1741 (date of his Lettres de créance), King Louis XV sent the évêque-ambassadeur (bishop-ambassador) to Spain, where he was received by King Philip V on 24 May 1741 at the king's summer residence, the Palacio Real de Aranjuez. In October 1743, he was ordered to begin negotiations on a counter-alliance with Spain against the defensive alliance between Austria, England and Sardinia concluded in Worms on 20 September 1743. It was in 1744, however, that he received the order for the mission of his life by a personal letter from King Louis XV, sent from Strasbourg and dated 7 October 1744: The king ordered him to negotiate the marriage between his eldest son Louis-Ferdinand de France, Dauphin de France, and María Teresa Rafaela de España, Infanta de España, in order to seal the alliance between France and Spain. A mission, which he accomplished brilliantly. The marriage contract was signed on 13 December 1744 and the marriage was celebrated by proxy in Madrid on 18 December 1744 and in person at the Château de Versailles on 23 February 1745.

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.

However, Louis-Guy de Guérapin de Vauréal also achieved prominence in another field. At the royal court, many so-called gallant rumors were circulating about the évêque from the time, when he still was an abbé. Especially his love affair with the widow Marie Geneviève Henriette Gertrude de Poitiers, Marquise de Comblans et de Coublans, née de Bourbon-Malause (1691–1778), who was the Dame de compagnie (Lady companion) to Françoise-Marie de Bourbon, Duchesse d'Orléans, and who was considered a prude, caused amusement at court. Their amorous tête-à-tête in the spring of 1725 at the Château de Marly became famous, as it was witnessed by Louis-Armand de Bourbon, Prince de Conti, who relished spreading the story at court.

Alfred Bardet reports, based on a report by Mathieu Marais from 10 April 1725, about Louis-Guy de Guérapin de Vauréal's career in the Catholic Church:

"The Abbé de Vauréal was the most handsome man at court during the Régence period and at the beginning of the reign of King Louis XV. He was amiable, witty, daring and intriguing. However, he owed the episcopate to women."

— Alfred Bardet (1846–1912), Membre associé de la Société Académique de l'Aube et Juge de Paix du Canton de Brienne

The évêque lived in his residence on the Rue de Grenelle for ten years. During this time he made some mostly minor modifications to the building. One of the larger lasting modifications he initiated was the enlargement of the vestibule to the size that is still visible today.

It was on 17 June 1760, on the return journey from Vichy, in the village of Magny-Cours, that Louis-Guy de Guérapin, Baron de Vauréal et Comte de Belleval, suddenly died. According to Jaime Masones de Lima, the Spanish ambassador in Paris, the évèque died as a rich man. His legacy was estimated at over two million livres, consisting mostly of real estate, dominions and lands. He bequeathed his fortune primarily to his servants and to a few individuals.

Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt: Soldier, esthete, seducer

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.

After the death of Louis-Guy de Guérapin, Baron de Vauréal et Comte de Belleval, the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour was rented out first to Charles Léonard de Baylens, Marquis de Poyanne, de Castelnau et de Vandenesse, for an annual rent of 8,500 livres, and then, from September 1766, to Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, a Swiss military officer in French service, whose name the residence still bears today.

Laughter, Grace and Games: The Soul of the Hôtel de Besenval, summarised by the Marquis de Sancé

When Pierre Victor de Besenval's friend Jean-Baptiste du Tertre, Marquis de Sancé (* 1730), learned that the baron had moved from the nearby Rue de Bourgogne to the famously infamous residence of the notorious womaniser Louis-Guy de Guérapin, Baron de Vauréal et Comte de Belleval, who became the Évêque de Rennes in 1732, he was amused and sent him the following satirical poem, pointing out the baron's equally well known reputation as a womaniser and seducer, as well as the reputation of his new residence as a former love nest of a prélat:

Près la barrière de Grenelle,
Un prélat par dévotion,
D'une manière agréable et nouvelle,
Avait embelli sa maison ;

Mais las ! sur quoi fonder la vanité mondaine !
L'ouvrage finissait à peine,
Quand un sort barbare et cruel,
Appelle le prélat au sein de l'Éternel ;

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 » ;

Holà, les Ris, les Grâces et les Jeux,
Amenez Besenval, et sans plus de remise,
Installez-le de votre mieux,
Au lit d'un père de l'église.

— Jean-Baptiste du Tertre, Marquis de Sancé (* 27 ou 29 mai 1730 à Château-Gontier), Mestre de camp de dragons, Brigadier, Maréchal de camp, Chevalier de Saint-Louis, et Syndic de la Compagnie française des Indes orientales (1764–1768)

From tenant to owner – or from the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour to the Hôtel de Besenval

It was on 5 December 1767, that Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, bought the Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour at auction from the many heirs of Louis-Guy de Guérapin, Baron de Vauréal et Comte de Belleval, for 170,100 livres, of which 6,000 livres for the furniture. The baron, who mainly grew up in France and who was very close to King Louis XV, and later to King Louis XVI and especially Queen Marie-Antoinette, was a descendant of one of the richest and most powerful patrician families of Solothurn. Among other holdings, the family called the Palais Besenval and the Schloss Waldegg their own; the latter was also the birthplace of Pierre Victor de Besenval on 14 October 1721.

The Hôtel Chanac de Pompadour has seen many changes of ownership over its more than 300-year history. And the building has changed its name just as often. However, it is still the name of Abbé Pierre Hélie Chanac de Pompadour, who commissioned the residence, as well as the name of its most illustrious owner Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, by which the building is still known today.

House of Besenval: A Swiss family, well connected – the French and the Polish connections

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.

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.

The family de Besenval, or von Besenval as they were called in their hometown Solothurn, had long and close ties to the French royal family, the House of Bourbon, also thanks to their family ties to the highest circles in Poland. The family became rich through the salt trade and the mercenary business with France.

Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, was the son of Jean Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, who was a colonel in the regiment of the Swiss Guards of France. 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. The letters of nobility also applied to the descendants.

Pierre Victor's mother was Katarzyna Bielińska (1684–1761). She was the daughter of Kazimierz Ludwik Bieliński, a Polish noble, politician and diplomat. She was also the sister of Franciszek Bieliński. Both, her father and her brother, were Grand Marshals of the Crown in Poland under the reign of King Stanisław Leszczyński, where Pierre Victor's father had served twice as French ambassador. First under King Stanisław Leszczyński, from 1707 to 1709, and then under King Augustus II the Strong, from 1713 to 1721. Jean Victor de Besenval's closest ally at the court of King Augustus II the Strong was Maria Magdalena Bielińska, div. Gräfin von Dönhoff, the king's Maîtresse-en-titre, who became his sister-in-law and thus the aunt of Pierre Victor de Besenval. Katarzyna Bielińska's first marriage was to Jakub Potocki, a Polish noble, who died in 1715. On 18 September 1716, she married Jean Victor, Baron de Besenval, whereupon she became the Baronne de Besenval. A marriage warmly welcomed by Philippe II de Bourbon, Duc d'Orléans, who was Régent de France between 1715 and 1723. 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. A rumour that the Baronne de Besenval never denied.

However, in September 1725, Voltaire wrote from the Château de Versailles to Madame La Présidente de Bernières, Marguerite-Madeleine du Maignart, Marquise de Bernières, née du Moustier (1698–1767), Châtelaine of the Château de la Rivière-Bourdet: "Everyone here pays court to Madame de Besenval, who is in some way related to the queen. This lady, who has spirit, receives with great modesty the marks of homage bestowed on her. I saw her yesterday with the Maréchal de Villars. She was asked how she was related to the queen; she replied that queens had no relatives."

This somewhat enigmatic answer from the Baronne de Besenval, however, left room for speculation about the real degree of kinship with the queen.

The rumor about the kinship with the Queen of France probably arose because the first husband of the Baronne de Besenval's sister Maria Magdalena, Gräfin von Dönhoff, née Bielińska, was Bogislaus Ernestus, Graf von Dönhoff († 24 March 1734), a member of the eastern Prussian line of the family von Dönhoff, also known as Denhoff. Bogislaus Ernestus, Graf von Dönhoff, was a second-degree cousin of King Stanisław Leszczyński and therefore a third-degree uncle of the Queen of France. Katarzyna, Baronne de Besenval, née Bielińska, was only related to Bogislaus Ernestus, Graf von Dönhoff, through her sister's marriage.

However, although there was obviously no direct blood kinship to the family of the Queen of France, there were nonetheless excellent relations between the families Bieliński and Leszczyński. As a result of the royal wedding in 1725, the influence of the family de Besenval in the royal court increased significantly. An impressive example of this is that the King of France erected the de Besenval's possession of Brunstatt in the Alsace into a French barony on 11 August 1726. Hence the family name Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt.

Following in his father's footsteps

As a child, Pierre Victor de Besenval lived with his two uncles and further family members in Solothurn in the Palais Besenval and the family's country estate, the Schloss Waldegg. In 1726, when he was five years old, his mother brought him to France, where his parents already lived. The family lived in a hôtel particulier on the Rue de Varenne in Paris. But they also had an apartment near the Château de Versailles. A few years later, on 4 April 1731, at the age of nine, Pierre Victor joined, as a cadet, the regiment of the Swiss Guards, of which his father had become a colonel. After his father's death in 1736, the fifteen-year-old Pierre Victor de Besenval inherited the Besenval Swiss Guard Company, of which he became commandant in 1738.

Extravagance on a grand scale: The nymphaeum

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.

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. After being appointed Lieutenant-Général of the King's armies on 25 July 1762 on the recommendation of Étienne-François de Choiseul-Beaupré-Stainville, Duc de Choiseul, he was appointed Gouverneur militaire of Haguenau in 1766 and Lieutenant-Colonel of the Swiss Guards Regiment on 25 August 1767. Furthermore, he was promoted to Commandant en chef of the troops and garrisons in the interior of France in 1781. As such, all troops and garrisons within France were subordinate to him and he was responsible for order and security in Paris as well as the territories around the capital.

Pierre Victor de Besenval wished that his residence would reflect his achievements and his status. It was therefore only consequent that, in 1782, he employed the celebrated architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart to enlarge and transform his residence on the Rue de Grenelle. Among Brongniart's additions were a long gallery with skylight for the baron's constantly growing art collection, a dining room, the replacement of the small annexe on the east side of the garden façade dating from the time of Louis-Guy de Guérapin, Baron de Vauréal et Comte de Belleval, Évêque de Rennes, (the évêque's former Chinese cabinet) with a larger annexe, which now houses the ambassador's library (next to the dining room), and a unique extravagance: A nymphaeum – a private bath with a pool in the antique style.

An esthete and his connections to the world of fine arts

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, showing Venus and Cupid with Leda and the Swan. The second one, on the opposite side, showed Pan pursuing Syrinx under de gaze of Cupid. On the far left: The now considered lost larger-than-life naiad, called La Source, on her oval-shaped pedestal.

Thanks to his contacts with his friends at the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, of which he was named an Honoraire Amateur on 7 February 1784, replacing Abbé François-Emmanuel Pommyer (1713–1784), the baron surrounded himself with quality French art works, signed by Le Nain, Charles-André van Loo, Pierre Mignard, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Antoine Watteau, Jean-Marc Nattier and Henri-Pierre Danloux just to name a few. The baron also owned a version of La Gimblette (girl playing with a dog) by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. This painting hung in the adjoining room of his bedroom, now called the Salon de l'alcôve or Le Boudoir. It was said that the baron owned the original version of La Gimblette. It is very likely that the baron bought La Gimblette from Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun. Today the painting is considered lost. However, there is an engraving based on the original painting, executed by Charles Bertony in 1783 and with a dedication to the Baron de Besenval, showing an inscription with the baron's titles, awards and military ranks as well as the family coat of arms.

Brongniart's plan for the nymphaeum from a bird's-eye view: The elliptical pool and the vestibule with the staircase, illuminated with ethereal skylight.

It was also thanks to the contacts with the academy, contacts that he had established long before his appointment as an Honoraire Amateur, and the support of Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart, that the baron managed to get the sculptor Claude Michel to decorate his nymphaeum. Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart knew Claude Michel very well. The two had worked together before.

Amongst others, Claude Michel created four vases with relief decoration and two large reliefs with erotic scenes, each measuring 1.03 m x 3.23 m, which later formed part of the interior decoration of the entrance hall of the Château de Digoine in Palinges and which have been part of the collections of the Louvre since 1987 (today plaster replicas can be seen in the entrance hall of the Château de Digoine). The Château de Digoine and the Hôtel de Besenval were simultaneously owned by the family de Moreton de Chabrillan and their descendants for over 100 years.

A masterpiece on everyone's lips: The top topic of conversation at the Société de la Reine

The commemorative plaque for the nymphaeum was commissioned by the Baron de Besenval himself.

The nymphaeum with its suggestive decoration became very popular with the Parisian high society. Almost immediately, rumors of scandalous behavior in the nymphaeum spread throughout the salons and this only confirmed the baron's reputation as a lover and seducer. His contemporaries described the baron as extremely handsome, cheerful and witty. As a personality who is very popular with the ladies, loves life and always sees things positively. Qualities that ultimately enabled him to be accepted into the private circle of the Société de la Reine (the Queen’s Society). In her memoirs Caroline-Stéphanie-Félicité du Crest, Comtesse de Genlis, recalls: "Le Baron de Besenval avait encore une figure charmante et de grands succès auprès les dames" (the Baron de Besenval still had a charming figure and great success with the ladies).

The Société de la Reine, a very influential circle in the royal court, was also called the Société de Trianon, named after its meeting place, the Petit Trianon, Queen Marie-Antoinette's retreat. In addition to the queen, the following three gentlemen were considered the most influential members of this society: Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, Joseph Hyacinthe François de Paule de Rigaud, Comte de Vaudreuil and Jean-Balthazar d'Adhémar, Comte d'Adhémar.

After his visit to the Hôtel de Besenval in 1786, Luc-Vincent Thiéry commented approvingly on the works of Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart and Claude Michel. In his guide on the city of Paris, he enthusiastically points out the baron's extravagance: "A bath decorated in the antique style and mystically lit." Thiéry refers to Brongniart's vestibule, which he created as an anteroom for the nymphaeum and which was illuminated with ethereal skylight. Thiéry's enthusiasm for this innovation is expressed in his commentary: "It proves the genius of the architect." Then he goes on: "In the niches there are vases with reliefs created by M. Clodion, the king's sculptor. The two large reliefs that decorate the center of this magnificent room are also made by this artist."

The legend, La Source and the remains of the nymphaeum

The remains of the nymphaeum in the basement of the Hôtel de Besenval (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.

Regarding the use of the nymphaeum, already contemporary observers noted that although the pool was filled with hot water, the basement itself was ice cold. Therefore, the nymphaeum was probably only used to a limited extent as a place for love adventures. In addition, it was said that the pool was actually only used once, by a soldier of the Swiss Guards who died of pneumonia shortly afterwards. However, this may just be a popular legend, as Borgniart also installed a heating system in the nymphaeum.

In 1787, Luc-Vincent Thiéry confirmed in his guide on the city of Paris that there was running hot water and thus a heating system in the nymphaeum. 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." The naiad, called La Source, was also made by Claude Michel. The sculpture, which was made of Pierre de Tonnerre, a Kimmeridgian limestone quarried in the Armançon valley east of the town of Tonnerre, later became part of the collection of Edmond James, Baron de Rothschild. The work was looted during World War II and is considered lost. The popularity of the sculpture led Claude Michel to make scaled down reproductions of La Source. And even after Claude Michel's death, further scaled down reproductions were made, especially in marble and bronze, by various artists.

Today only the basic architectural structure of the nymphaeum is visible. The pool was filled in long ago. The mobile decorations, mostly made by Claude Michel, such as the reliefs, the vases and the statues, were all taken from the Hôtel de Besenval in the first half of the 19th century and installed in the Château de Digoine and finally sold at the beginning of the 20th century when the Château de Digoine was sold by the descendants of the family de Moreton de Chabrillan to Anne Marie Christine Antoinette, Marquise de Croix d'Heuchin (1860–1927), in 1908. The Marquise de Croix d'Heuchin bought the château for her son Pierre Guy Marie François de Croix (1886–1930).

Revolutionary years

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, an officer of the Swiss Guards, 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.

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. In addition, he was also a recipient of the prestigious Order of Saint Louis, which he had received in 1766 for the reorganisation of the Swiss Guards, of which he was Inspecteur général between 1762 and 1770. It was the baron's wish to hand over the office of Inspecteur général to his compatriot Anton de Salis de Marschlins (1732–1812). Jean-Baptiste-Denis Després, Pierre Victor de Besenval's secretary, aptly summarized the baron's success: "Le Baron de Besenval fut un de ces hommes à qui tout réussit" (the Baron de Besenval was one of those men who succeeded in everything).

A dark cloud loomed over the Ancien Régime

Towards the end of the 1780s, a dark cloud loomed over the Ancien Régime. The French kingdom had fallen into financial difficulties and was even threatened with national bankruptcy. The inflation rose and the people protested in the streets because of the sharp rise in bread prices. The price of bread had risen to its highest level in the century. King Louis XVI, who had ruled in an absolutist manner until then, had to act.

On 5 May 1789, Les États Généraux were convened in a temporary room set up at the Hôtel des Menus-Plaisirs in Versailles. The Baron de Besenval, who attended the opening ceremony, remarked that the royal court was underestimating the seriousness of the situation.

On 1 July, the baron received a letter from the Secretary of State for War, Louis Pierre de Chastenet, Comte de Puységur, informing him that the king had decided to regroup all his troops under a single command and entrusted them to Maréchal Victor-François, Duc de Broglie. Clearly, the baron was deprived of command of his troops of the Île-de-France and the garrison of Paris. He was now doomed to await and obey orders. However, under the supreme command of the Maréchal de Broglie, he was still responsible for order and security in Paris as well as the territories around the capital. The maréchal and the baron were old friends. The baron had served as aide-de-camp to the maréchal during the War of the Austrian Succession. And as far as the troops in Paris were concerned, the Maréchal de Broglie left the Baron de Besenval largely in command. The maréchal had assured the baron that he would not interfere in details within the baron's sphere of authority, nor would he give direct orders to the baron's troops. The Maréchal de Broglie kept his word. A fact that would become decisive in the next few days.

On 6 July, Ludwig von Flüe, an officer of the Swiss Guards, received orders from Pierre Victor de Besenval to go to the Bastille with his detachment of the Regiment de Salis-Samade to reinforce the guards and to ensure the defence of the prison-fortress. The next day, Ludwig von Flüe arrived at the Bastille with 32 soldiers and a sergeant.

On 11 July, King Louis XVI forced the resignation of the only non-noble minister, the Finance Minister Jacques Necker. The king advised Necker to leave the country immediately. A step that led to major riots among the population when the news broke on 12 July, as the Genevan banker was extremely popular with the people. In the days that followed, the events came thick and fast.

The baron's fatal decision and the beginning of the French Revolution

12 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, Châteauvieux and Salis-Samade as well as the hussar regiments de Berchény and de Chamborant. After the Taking of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 by the revolutionaries, the baron's troops hastily retreated on the night of 15 July.

The dismissal of the popular Finance Minister Jacques Necker was the final straw. The people of Paris protested in large numbers on the streets. While still maintaining order in Paris in May by drastic measures, the Baron de Besenval withdrew the troops from Paris on 12 July in the hope of avoiding a bloodbath. However, this enabled the Taking of the Bastille on 14 July by revolutionary insurgents. On the part of the aristocrats, the baron was heavily criticised for his behavior. François-Emmanuel Guignard, Comte de Saint-Priest, was furious and accused the baron of incompetence. In his memoirs he wrote contemptuously: "A dozen battalions of foreign troops stationed on the Champ de Mars and a few regiments of cavalry were available to the Baron de Besenval, Swiss Lieutenant-Général and Commandant en chef of Paris. Besenval didn't show up, didn't give orders and locked himself in his house for fear that people might come and loot it."

King Louis XVI first learned of the Taking of the Bastille only the next morning through the Duc de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt. "Is it a revolt?" asked the king. The duc replied: "No Sire, it's not a revolt; it's a revolution."

One of the consequences of the Taking of the Bastille was that the king and the National Constituent Assembly recalled the Finance Minister Jacques Necker in a letter dated 16 July. The king wrote: "Come, come, Monsieur, without delay, regain your rights to my trust, which is yours forever. (...) I am waiting for you with my entire nation." Necker accepted and returned to France, which in turn led to the Maréchal de Broglie emigrating that same day, 16 July, after having been Secretary of State for War for only four days. On 29 July, Necker arrived in Versailles, where he was enthusiastically received by the population.

In his memoirs, which were only published after his death, the baron says that on 12 July he had acted on the orders of the Maréchal de Broglie:

"Weakened by the defection [of some soldiers] and certain that I was useless, I decided to return [with the troops] to Sèvres at nightfall; and as soon as the troops were in motion, I received orders from the Maréchal de Broglie to retreat."

— Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval

This incident has since been considered the beginning of the French Revolution.

The baron, accused of high treason by the aristocrats and of the crime of lèse-nation by the revolutionaries, had no choice but to flee to Switzerland, his home country.

L'affaire de Monsieur de Besenval: Besenval's escape, arrest and release

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 dungeon.

Pierre Victor de Besenval was not only hated by the revolutionary masses as a soldier, but also suspected as a close friend of Queen Marie-Antoinette. When the revolutionary masses demanded his head, the baron obtained permission from the king to leave for Switzerland, after having spoken to him on 19 July 1789 at the Château de Versailles.

In his memoirs the baron recalls:

"On 19th [July], I visited the king, all ministers being absent. (...) He urged me to escape. So I decided to return to Switzerland."

— Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval

But just one day after his departure from Paris, the baron was recognised by revolutionary troops during his trip on 26 July at the Auberge in Villegruis near Provins. He was immediately arrested. First, the baron was taken to nearby Villenauxe-la-Grande, where he was placed under house arrest at the Hôtel du Cheval Bardé. He was eventually imprisoned at the Château de Brie-Comte-Robert before being charged with the crime of lèse-nation in mid-October and transferred to the prison Grand Châtelet in Paris on 7 November. In his prison cell, which was quite comfortable since it was actually the prison chaplain's room, the baron was allowed to be served by his valet, who ordered the baron's meals from the best caterers in town. In addition, he was allowed to receive visitors, who came in large numbers. 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. Another visitor was the painter Hubert Robert, whose painting Vue de la cellule du Baron de Besenval à la prison du Châtelet (View from the Baron de Besenval's cell in the Châtelet prison) bears witness to his visit to this day. The painting has been part of the collections of the Louvre since 2012.

During his imprisonment, evidence was collected against Pierre Victor de Besenval. On 1 August 1789, a house search was carried out on the orders of the municipal council of Paris. 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. In addition, he also interrogated the baron's staff. The aristocratic society was alarmed. This incident caused many nobles to prepare their escape from France. The baron's trial began on 19 November. Pierre Victor de Besenval's life hung by a thread.

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.

It was only through the intervention of the Genevan banker and French Finance Minister Jacques Necker that the baron escaped lynching when he was arrested in Villegruis. Eventually, the baron was released on 1 March 1790, after winning his case before the court of the Grand Châtelet, thanks to the indefatigable support of his soldiers who testified in his favour. But also thanks to the closing argument of his lawyer Raymond Desèze and thanks to Jacques Necker, who had held his protective hand over him. 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.

However, not everyone was enthusiastic about this verdict. And quite a few saw this judgment as a courtesy judgment for the Swiss Guards, who were favoured by the royal court, and as a concession to Jacques Necker, who had demanded a pardon for Pierre Victor de Besenval at a reception at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris on 30 July 1789, in the presence of the Mayor of Paris, Jean Sylvain Bailly, and the Commandant Général de la Garde Bourgeoise, the Marquis de Lafayette, as well as of the 120 representatives of the Commune de Paris and further high-ranking dignitaries. Necker asked in his statement: "It is not only before you, it is before the most unknown, the most obscure of the citizens of Paris, that I prostrate myself, that I throw myself on my knees to ask that no one exercise, neither towards M. de Besenval nor towards anyone else, no rigors similar in any way to those that I have been told. (...) What I ask is consideration for a foreign general, if he only needs that; it's indulgence and kindness, if he needs more. (...) I would be very happy if this example became the signal for an amnesty, which would restore calm to France."

Due to the fame of Pierre Victor de Besenval and his prominent friends, some of whom also enjoyed respect among the revolutionaries and had campaigned for the baron's release, the Besenval Case had soon developed into a test case of fair justice in revolutionary France. In addition to the popular Jacques Necker, the also much respected Marquis de Lafayette had also demanded the release of Pierre Victor de Besenval. Furthermore, the Swiss cantons had also protested against the baron's arrest, especially his compatriots from the Canton of Solothurn.

Pierre Victor de Besenval as a courtier around 1780, etching by Louis Carrogis Carmontelle.

One of the less pleased about the baron's release was François-René de Chateaubriand. 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!"

Le Suisse le plus français qui ait jamais été

After his release, Pierre Victor de Besenval resumed his work in the king's service. But soon he was no longer able to hold office, as the seven-month imprisonment and the ongoing danger to his life had severely affected his health. His condition worsened day by day. After having already had his portrait painted by some of the most famous French painters, such as Jean-Marc Nattier, Jean-Baptiste Greuze and Louis Carrogis Carmontelle, the baron commissioned his last portrait from Henri-Pierre Danloux in spring 1791. Shortly after this most famous portrait of his was completed, his strength failed him at length.

The baron died on 2 June 1791 after dinner in the bedroom at his residence in Paris, surrounded by twenty five friends and relatives, including his mistress Catherine-Louise, Marquise de La Suze, née de Santo-Domingo (1757–1826), wife of Louis-François de Chamillart, Marquis de La Suze, and his son Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur. The autopsy found the cause of death to be a polyp in the heart.

"Le Suisse le plus français qui ait jamais été" (the most French Swiss ever), as Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve once called Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval, was buried on 6 June 1791 in the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, the church of his family's gravesite, in the presence of his friends and his only child, his son Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur.

From Besenval's death in 1791 to 1925

Chambre du maître, the former bedroom of the Baron de Besenval, where he died on 2 June 1791. 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.

In his will dated 20 December 1784, Pierre Victor de Besenval, who was never married, bequeathed the usufruct of his residence on the Rue de Grenelle to his lifelong friend Maréchal Philippe Henri, Marquis de Ségur, whose second son Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur, was in fact the baron's illegitimate son, which was no secret within the family. The baron's relationship with his best friend's wife Louise-Anne, Marquise de Ségur, née de Vernon (1729–1778), which lasted until her death, and the illegitimate son did not cloud the relationship between the spouses or between Besenval and his best friend. But on the contrary. The three enjoyed being together. The baron spent a lot of time in the château of the Marquis de Ségur in Romainville, where he could pursue another passion: The art of horticulture (the last remains of the Château de Ségur were demolished in 2017). Furthermore, it was the intention of both, the Baron de Besenval and the Marquis de Ségur, that one day the baron's son would inherit the Hôtel de Besenval. Consequently, the baron bequeathed the bare ownership of the Hôtel de Besenval to his biological son Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur. The physical resemblance between Pierre Victor de Besenval and his son was noticed and discussed by contemporaries, including Gouverneur Morris, who wrote in his diary after a visit to the Hôtel de Besenval on 27 March 1789: "I then went to the Baron de Besenval. The company is not numerous, and there is the Vicomte de Ségur, who passes for the son of the baron; one must admit that he really is, if one accepts as proof their physical resemblance and their mutual tenderness. This young man is the Lovelace of the day and as remarkable as his father as a seducer."

A treasure house is being auctioned off: The sale of the Hôtel de Besenval

During the French Revolution, the family de Ségur was largely dispossessed. Consequently, the family was in need of money. Therefore, the Marquis de Ségur and the Vicomte de Ségur decided to sell the entire contents of the Hôtel de Besenval at auction on 10 August 1795. The auction with 222 lots was conducted by Alexandre Joseph Paillet, a prominent auctioneer in Paris at the end of the 18th century. Between 1777 and 1789, Paillet also acted as an agent for The Crown, acquiring paintings for the museum in the Louvre.

In the foreword to the auction catalogue, Alexandre Joseph Paillet praises the baron's collection: "The precious and considerable collection of which we are presently announcing the public and detailed sale by auction, will again offer amateurs a brilliant opportunity to acquire outstanding and exquisite objects."

It is an irony of history that the entire contents of the Hôtel de Besenval were sold at auction, as Pierre Victor de Besenval rarely bought at auctions. He preferred to buy his furniture and artworks either directly from the artists or from established dealers such as Lazare Duvaux or Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lebrun. The proceeds from the auction were almost two million livres. An enormous sum that helped to rehabilitate the family de Ségur financially.

A taste for the finer things in life

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 client in the United States for FRF4,500,000 (then ~US$800,000).

The considerable auction proceeds show what treasures the baron had amassed in the Hôtel de Besenval over the course of his life. His contemporaries already reported that the Hôtel de Besenval was a real treasure house.

The prestige of his collection was such that one could almost take at face value the scathing remarks of François-Emmanuel Guignard, Comte de Saint-Priest, accusing the baron of having selfishly preferred to let the looting of the Hôtel des Invalides happen on 14 July 1789 by rioters who seized the cannons and muskets stored in its cellars to use against the Bastille later the same day, for fear that his nearby home, the Hôtel de Besenval, might otherwise have been looted.

The description of the Baron de Besenval's residence with many accurate details about the ornaments of the wood panelling and the stucco ceilings of the different rooms as well as of the artworks and the furnishings by Luc-Vincent Thiéry in his Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris, ou Description raisonnée de cette Ville, de sa Banlieue, et de tout ce qu'elles contiennent de remarquable, published in 1787, the notes of Abbé Jean-François Brun, called Le Brun (1732–1804), in his Almanach historique et raisonné des architectes, peintres, sculpteurs, graveurs et cizeleurs of 1777 about the baron's rich cabinet of paintings from The Three Painting Schools (France, Italy and the Netherlands), together with the baron's 1795 collection sale catalogue by Alexandre Joseph Paillet, offer a remarkably comprehensive picture of his distinctive taste for luxurious furniture, porcelain, paintings, sculptures and objets d’art. Or as Henriette Campan, Première Femme de Chambre of Queen Marie-Antoinette, put it: "Le Baron de Besenval avait conservé la simplicité des Suisses et acquis toute la finesse d'un courtisan français" (the Baron de Besenval had retained the simplicity of the Swiss and acquired all the finesse of a French courtier).

Some of the baron's treasures are also visible in the portrait titled: Le Baron de Besenval dans son salon de compagnie, painted by Henri-Pierre Danloux in 1791 and now hanging in the National Gallery in London.

The baron's Last Sitting – Danloux's iconic portrait

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. 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.

Colin B. Bailey describes the iconic portrait Le Baron de Besenval dans son salon de compagnie as Henri-Pierre Danloux's "most accomplished Parisian portrait" and notes that this intimate picture "deserves to be known as the single oil painting produced in the 18th century of a French private collector in his picture cabinet." Humphrey Wine, curator of the 17th and 18th century French paintings at the National Gallery from 1990 to 2016, is equally enthusiastic and notes that the "sitter [Pierre Victor de Besenval] is commemorated as a collector in a portrait worthy of a collector." This painting was one of the few pieces not for sale at the auction in 1795. The baron's son Joseph-Alexandre Pierre, Vicomte de Ségur, kept his father's portrait in his possession until his death in 1805.

It was to be one last for both, Besenval and Danloux: Besenval died shortly after the portrait was completed in 1791 and for Danloux it was his last major portrait commission before he left France because of the turmoil of the French Revolution and emigrated to the United Kingdom.

Even today, most of the paintings which are visible in this portrait displayed against green damask can be identified. According to Colin B. Bailey, paintings of the following artists are visible: Cornelis van Poelenburgh, Willem van de Velde, David Teniers, Aelbert Cuyp, Claude-Joseph Vernet and Carlo Maratta. 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. Each of the three pieces has an identical pendant. The three pairs, together called the Baron de Besenval Garniture, were sold at auction on 8 July 2021 by Christie's in London in The Exceptional Sale in three lots (lots 4, 5 and 6) for a total of GBP1,620,000.

Furthermore, some pieces of Japanese porcelain are visible on an armoire à hauteur d'appui, made in the style of André-Charles Boulle (one of a pair, made in contre-parti and almost certainly lots 186 and 187 in the baron's 1795 collection sale catalogue). Among the Japanese porcelain pieces on the armoire à hauteur d'appui are an Arita carp vase and a Kakiemon bottle. The beautifully crafted pair of gilt bronze chenets to the baron's feet (only one of the pair is visible) and the gilt bronze wall-lights on both sides of the mirror (only the lower part of the one on the right-hand side is visible, showing a ram's mask on the back-plate) can be attributed to Philippe Caffieri and were probably made en suite to form a visual ensemble (two pairs of these wall-lights are known: One at the Royal Palace of Stockholm and the other in a private collection).

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 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.

The relations between the families de Besenval and Caffieri were close. Already the baron's father, Jean Victor de Besenval de Brunstatt (1671–1736), was a client of Philippe Caffieri's father, Jacques Caffieri. Jacques Caffieri had cast Jean Victor's bust in 1737, the same year that he had also created Jean Victor's funerary monument in the church of Saint-Sulpice. Both works were commissioned by Pierre Victor de Besenval. Two years earlier, in 1735, Jacques Caffieri had also cast the bust of Jean Victor's late father, Jean Victor P. Joseph de Besenval (1638–1713). The two busts were both shown at the exhibition L'Art Français sous Louis XIV et sous Louis XV which was held in Paris in 1888. At least one of these busts was part of the baron's collection. According to Louis Abel de Bonafous, Abbé de Fontenay (1737–1806), it was the bust that showed the baron's father and which he kept in his cabinet at the Hôtel de Besenval.

On the one hand, this shows the exquisite taste of the baron, whom Luc-Vincent Thiéry once called "homme de goût et de connaissances" (man of taste and knowledge), and, on the other hand, with what precision Henri-Pierre Danloux has executed this last portrait of Pierre Victor de Besenval.

Over the years, many of the baron's treasures have found new homes in world renowned museums or distinctive private collections. 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. Today this commode is part of the Royal Collection and is on display in the Green Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. Other pieces found their way into the collections of the Louvre, the National Gallery, the Hermitage Museum, the Wallace Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Besenval era is coming to an end: The Comtesse de Moreton de Chabrillan

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.

Unlike the property and the fortune of the family de Ségur, the Hôtel de Besenval was exempt from expropriation by the revolutionary government since the former property of the Baron de Besenval was still considered Swiss-owned. In this context, it paid off for the Vicomte de Ségur to ensure that, during the worst phase of the revolutionary turmoil, he was only perceived as executor of Pierre Victor de Besenval's will and not as his heir.

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 benches with paw feet were also part of the nymphaeum's furnishings.

Already in 1780, the Baron de Besenval had bought a hôtel particulier on 6 Rue Chantereine for his son, the Vicomte de Ségur, which was built by the architect François-Victor Perrard de Montreuil (1742–1821). This was the house where the Vicomte de Ségur lived with his then mistress Louise Julie Careau. The Marquis de Ségur lived in the Hôtel de Ségur on 9 Rue Saint-Florentin. And when the Marquis de Ségur's house in Paris and his château in Romainville were later confiscated during the French Revolution, he withdrew to his country house, the Château de la Petite Roseraie in Châtenay-Malabry. Therefore, neither the Marquis de Ségur nor the Vicomte de Ségur had any intention of moving permanently to the Hôtel de Besenval. However, shortly after his father's death, the Vicomte de Ségur appears to have lived at the Hôtel de Besenval for at least some time, using it as a pied-à-terre.

On 30 October 1795, the Marquis de Ségur and the Vicomte de Ségur decided to let the Hôtel de Besenval to Francesco-Saverio, Conte di Carletti (1740–1803), the Minister of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany in Paris. But just two years later, on 5 May 1797, the Marquis de Ségur and the Vicomte de Ségur sold the Hôtel de Besenval to Marie-Elisabeth-Olive Guigues, Comtesse de Moreton de Chabrillan, née Frotier de La Coste-Messelière (1761–1807), widow of Jacques Henri Sébastien César Guigues, Comte de Moreton de Chabrillan, for FRF35,000. The family of the Comtesse also owned the Château de Digoine in Palinges. The Comtesse's grandfather was Claude Léonor de Reclesne, Marquis de Digoine (1698–1765).

It was the son of the Comtesse de Moreton de Chabrillan Aimé Jacques Marie Constant Guigues, Comte de Moreton de Chabrillan, Chambellan to Emperor Napoleon by decree of 21 December 1809, whom Napoleon created Comte de l'Empire by letters patent of 19 January 1811, who in the first half of the 19th century brought all the decorative elements of the baron's nymphaeum to the Château de Digoine and used them to adorn the entrance hall and the grand staircase of the château. Most of these decorative elements were made by Claude Michel, such as the reliefs depicting erotic scenes, which have been part of the collections of the Louvre since 1987.

The family de Moreton de Chabrillan and their descendants kept the Hôtel de Besenval in their possession until 1925. In later years they also rented it out, including to members of the family Bonaparte.

The transformation of the Hôtel de Besenval and the arrival of the family Bonaparte

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 1862 (construction plans dated 25 July 1862) and in 1866 respectively (construction work carried out), at the time when the Hôtel de Besenval belonged to Marie Jacqueline Sidonie, Marquise de Montholon-Sémonville, née Guigues de Moreton de Chabrillan (1810–1890), daughter of Aimé Jacques Marie Constant Guigues, Comte de Moreton de Chabrillan, and her husband Louis François Alphonse, Marquis de Montholon-Sémonville, Prince d'Umbriano del Precetto (1808–1865), Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur, that the corps de logis was altered to its present appearance after the design of the architect P. Chabrier. The house was enlarged with another floor and an attic with a comble à la Mansart.

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.

This construction work massively changed the external appearance of the single-floor residence. Whereas the corps de logis previously had the appearance and the architectural lightness of a pleasure pavilion, the Hôtel de Besenval now changed its appearance to become a house with a certain severity and seriousness, a residence suitable for a family.

The family de Montholon was very close to the French imperial family, the House of Bonaparte. Charles Tristan, Marquis de Montholon, was a general under Emperor Napoleon and followed him into exile on 8 August 1815 on Saint Helena. Therefore, it doesn't come as a surprise that between 1855 and 1870 the Princes Lucien and Joseph Lucien Bonaparte, sons of Charles Lucien Bonaparte and therefore descdendants of Lucien Bonaparte, younger brother of Emperor Napoleon, resided at the Hôtel de Besenval.

It was also at the request of the family Bonaparte that the family de Montholon-Sémonville commissioned the extension of the building and the construction of the new suites of rooms on the first floor so that also other members of the family Bonaparte could temporarily stay at the Hôtel de Besenval, such as Princesse Charlotte Honorine Joséphine Bonaparte (1832–1901).

Today the ambassador's office and other offices and meeting rooms are located on the first floor. Part of the first floor also houses the ambassador's private quarters. The layout and the decoration of these rooms are rather simple compared to the state rooms on the ground floor.

Embassy of the Swiss Confederation (until 1957 as the Swiss Legation)

On the afternoon of 8 March 1938, Minister Walter Stucki, 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. One of the topics of conversation 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.

During the second half of the 19th century, the Hôtel de Besenval became more and more of a revenue house. By 1909 the whole building was subdivided into apartments. Before World War I, most of the tenants were aristocrats. 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. Years earlier, in 1925, Jean-Charles, Marquis de Montholon-Sémonville, Prince d'Umbriano del Precetto (1875–1954), who lived in the family's castle in Italy, the Castello di San Michele, and who was a descendant of Marie-Elisabeth-Olive Guigues, Comtesse de Moreton de Chabrillan, who had bought the Hôtel de Besenval in 1797, sold the Hôtel de Besenval for FRF3,000,000 to the public company Société immobilière Pompadour. The majority shareholders of the company were Emily Grace Baumann, née Kinsley (1862–1951), an American heiress and widow of Gustav Baumann (1853–1914), a Swiss gentleman from St. Gallen, and her son, Clifton K. Baumann (1893–1936). However, Emily Grace Baumann and her son Clifton only lived in the Hôtel de Besenval temporarily between 1930 and 1931. The property continued to be occupied primarily by tenants until it was sold in 1938. One of the more illustrious tenants was George Bakhmeteff, the last tsarist Russian ambassador to the United States. One of the last tenants to leave the Hôtel de Besenval before it was taken over by the Swiss Confederation was the retired US ambassador Robert Peet Skinner, former US ambassador to Greece, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Turkey.

Federal Councillor Giuseppe Motta's strategy

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 contract was signed, as it was no secret among the diplomatic and the political circles that the contract 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.

From the mid-1930s, the threat of war in Europe steadily increased. Accordingly, the Federal Council was concerned about the country's balance and independence. Therefore, the Swiss Foreign Minister Giuseppe Motta decided to strengthen Switzerland's presence in some important capitals. Part of this strategy was the plan to purchase representative legation buildings in strategically favorable locations, particularly in Paris, Rome and Washington (with the purchase of the Villa Kunheim in Berlin in 1919 and a mansion in London, this task had already been accomplished in these capitals).

When, after the death of Clifton K. Baumann in 1936, the Hôtel de Besenval was put up for sale in 1937, the Swiss Government did not have to think twice. With its prime location, ideal size and storied Franco-Swiss past embodied by Pierre Victor de Besenval, it seemed like the ideal building. In the same year, negotiations began between the Société immobilière Pompadour and the Swiss Confederation. Finally, on 19 May 1938, the Swiss Confederation purchased the Hôtel de Besenval for FRF3,440,000 and moved the Swiss Legation from its previous premises at 51 Avenue Hoche to 142 Rue de Grenelle.

It was Minister Walter Stucki, Envoy of the Swiss Confederation to France, who was in charge of the purchase and the supervision of the serious renovation work of the existing buildings, as well as the addition of an administrative building bordering the west court, which replaced the former west wing with the kitchen and the servant's quarters. The work was planned and carried out by the architects Moreillon & Taillens. Later, between 1967 and 1969, the west wing was expanded to include a floor and an attic based on the model of the corps de logis.

The offices of the Swiss Legation opened in January 1939. A month earlier, in December 1938, Minister Walter Stucki was able to move into the envoy's residence. A few months later World War II broke out.

World War II

The garden façade of the Hôtel de Besenval in the winter of 1938. The year the Swiss Confederation bought the building.

In June 1940, after the Battle of France, the capture of Paris and the fall of the Third Republic on 22 June, the legation was downgraded to a consulate and Minister Walter Stucki, together with his diplomatic colleague Pierre Dupont (1912–1993), as well as a large part of the French ruling elite, including the Deputy Prime Minister Maréchal Philippe Pétain, withdrew to Vichy. Meanwhile, Walter Stucki's deputy, Legation Councillor Henry de Torrenté (1893–1962), remained in Paris.

Shortly afterwards, Philippe Pétain took action. With a single sentence Philippe Pétain created a new executive power with which he effectively ended the Third Republic and founded the État français. He declared: "We, Philippe Pétain, Maréchal de France, declare, in accordance with the constitutional law of 10 July 1940, that we exercise the functions of Head of State of the État français (Chef de l'État français)." On 11 and 12 July, Pétain promulgated the first four constitutional acts, which granted him unlimited powers as head of state, with the exception of declaring war. They undermined the republican principle of separation of powers and replaced popular sovereignty with the personal authority of Maréchal Philippe Pétain. Walter Stucki recognised the seriousness of the situation and sought contact with Philippe Pétain.

In the course of time, Stucki gained Pétain's trust. And on 20 August 1944, Pétain took Stucki to his private apartment at the Hôtel du Parc as a witness to prove that he was evacuated by the Germans against his will to Belfort. Stucki mediated between the advancing Allies, the retreating Germans and the French Resistance fighters and saved Vichy from destruction. The grateful city government of Vichy made Stucki an honorary citizen and named a street after him, the Avenue Walter Stucki.

A place – reminiscent of the great diplomatic missions

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.

After the war and with the arrival of Minister Carl J. Burckhardt, the Hôtel de Besenval once again became the Swiss Legation and social life returned to the residence on the Rue de Grenelle. On 25 March 1947, Carl J. Burckhardt welcomed an illustrious group of friends from the world of the arts at his residence. Amongst others there were: Marie-Laure de Noailles, Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin, Nora Auric (1900–1982), Robert de Saint-Jean, Christian Bérard and Jacques Février. Diplomacy was finally able to devote itself again to its actual task: Maintaining and intensifying bilateral relations.

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.

In 1963, Ambassador Agostino Soldati and Cultural Attaché Bernard Barbey achieved a cultural coup: A major exhibition by the artist Alberto Giacometti in the garden of the Hôtel de Besenval. Ambassador Agostino Soldati welcomed tout-Paris to the exhibition, including Hubert de Givenchy. From 1986, Hubert de Givenchy's residence in Paris was the Hôtel d'Orrouer, which is also located on the Rue de Grenelle, not far from the Hôtel de Besenval. Hubert de Givenchy was a passionate collector of works by Alberto Giacometti and his brother Diego Giacometti. Amongst others, Hubert de Givenchy owned the sculpture Femme qui marche by Alberto Giacometti, which he kept in his salon at the Hôtel d'Orrouer.

In his later years Alberto Giacometti's works were shown in a number of large exhibitions throughout Europe. The popularity was such that it was decided to show the exhibition also at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1965. Alberto Giacometti attended the exhibtion personally, despite his declining health.

The importance of the Hôtel de Besenval as a place for Franco-Swiss encounters has become apparent again and again throughout history. Also Gaston Palewski, Président du Conseil constitutionnel, recalled in his funeral eulogy for Ambassador Agostino Soldati on 20 December 1966, with reference to Soldati's elegance, excellent taste, diplomatic skills and legendary hospitality, – and whom General Charles de Gaulle, Président de la République Française, once called le grand Ambassadeur et l'ami de la France:

"The Hôtel de Besenval, the beautiful Swiss embassy in Paris, rejuvenated and decorated with exquisite taste, had become a popular and beloved center, reminiscent of the great diplomatic missions we once knew in Paris, those of a Lord Tyrell, a William Bullitt, a Duff Cooper, a Carl J. Burckhardt."

— Gaston Palewski, Président du Conseil constitutionnel

The Hôtel de Besenval: In the service of Franco-Swiss diplomacy – already in Besenval's time

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.

The first permanent diplomatic representation of the then Helvetic Republic in France was opened in April 1798. Head of this worldwide first ever official permanent Swiss diplomatic representation was the Envoy Peter Josef Zeltner from Solothurn. This was the beginning of a long line of Swiss ambassadors to France.

However, long before, individual Swiss cantons of the old Swiss Confederacy were well aware that they had to have their interests represented at the powerful French royal court. In the Ancien Régime, these tasks were either assigned to special envoys for special tasks or the already established network was used by allied people who were already on site, such as the officers of the Swiss Guards, like Pierre Victor de Besenval, and this for good reasons. The officers of the Swiss Guards were very influential at the royal court. Alain-Jacques Tornare (* 1957) describes their status as follows: "Swiss soldiers in France were not mercenaries, but an army within the army. In a broader sense, the Swiss community in France formed a state within the state. The kings showered the Swiss with privileges such as tax exemptions, legal rights and freedom of religion, so that they were more favoured than the French themselves." The Swiss thanked the kings by assuring them of their reliability and loyalty. In summary, Tornare says about the importance of the Swiss Guards: "A pillar of France's Ancien Régime and a symbol of Swiss know-how."

"Switzerland had to have a place in Paris that reflected the importance, the friendship and the density of relations between the two countries."

— Ambassador Edouard Brunner on the importance of the Hôtel de Besenval for Swiss diplomacy

State rooms

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.

The layout and the decoration of the vestibule and the state rooms, the Salon de la tapisserie, the Salon des perroquets, the Salon des ministres (La chambre du maître) and the dining room, have changed little since the time of the Baron de Besenval. The designs of the architects Pierre-Alexis Delamair and Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart are still predominant, especially when it comes to the wood panelling, although later revisions and additions were made in the corresponding styles. These rooms are still decorated in the styles of their time: Régence, Louis XV, Louis XVI and Neoclassicism.

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.

However, it was in the first half of the 19th century that the family de Moreton de Chabrillan transformed the little adjoining room to the baron's former bedroom into a Salon de l'alcôve and embellished its wood panelling, dating originally from the 1720s, with elements in the Rococo Revival style, amongst others with four medallion paintings in the style of François Boucher, embedded in the wall panelling. Today this room is also called Le Boudoir.

In the course of time and under the different owners, further decorative changes were made, especially before the turn of the 19th to the 20th century and in the early 20th century. Parquet floors were replaced, some fireplace mantels exchanged, the large 18th-century marble stove, decorated with gilt bronzes by Pierre Gouthière and placed in the vestibule, dismantled and sold, the double-leaf doors of the Salon de la tapisserie mirrored and the stucco ceiling in the Chambre du maître lost its elaborate neo Louis XV decoration (the decoration of the ceiling can still be seen in photographs from before World War I).

However, the Swiss Confederation renovated these rooms with great respect after acquiring the property in 1938, which had already been a listed building for 10 years at that point

In addition, it was important to the Swiss Confederation to furnish the state rooms with appropriate furniture from the respective eras and styles. And, if at all possible, to get back some of the original furniture that was once part of the Hôtel de Besenval. The costs of purchasing all the antique furniture and works of art were largely borne by Swiss industrialists, who founded the association Amis de l'Hôtel de Pompadour for this purpose. The driving forces behind the extensive furnishing of antiques were Minister Walter Stucki and Ambassador Agostino Soldati.

The axis Solothurn – Paris: The return of the furniture and the families de Besenval and de Broglie

The enfilade at the Hôtel de Besenval 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, including with the help of the Galerie Kraemer of Paris and partly paid for by Swiss industrialists.

A few years after the baron's death in 1791, the baron's furniture, works of art and further belongings from the Hôtel de Besenval were sold at auction in Paris on 10 August 1795. 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. The sofa looks slightly different than the chairs. However, since the provenance is the same, it may have already been added to the ensemble by the Baron de Besenval.

The sofa and the six chairs were bought by the Swiss Confederation in 1938 from the patrician family von Sury for a total of CHF4,000. Their ancestor, Josef von Sury von Bussy (1817–1887), who had been married to Charlotte de Besenval (1826–1885) since 26 June 1848, had bought the Schloss Waldegg, including the furniture and the paintings, on 6 February 1865 from the last members of the family de Besenval who were entitled to inherit the assets of the former Fidéicommis de Waldegg, which existed from 1684 to 1811. On the one hand, this was Amédée de Besenval (1809–1899), the brother-in-law of Josef von Sury von Bussy. He was the main heir to the Schloss Waldegg Estate. On the other hand, these were Amédée de Besenval's two daughters Marie Joséphine (1833–1869) and Marie Laurette (1837–1912), who had inherited their shares from their late mother Marie Louise Emélie de Besenval, née de Besenval (1804–1838). Marie Louise Emélie de Besenval, née de Besenval, was a first cousin of her husband Amédée de Besenval. With Amédée Victor Louis, Comte de Besenval (1862–1927), who lived in Naples, the main line of the family died out in 1927. Amédée Victor Louis' father Victor (1819–?) and his uncle Jules (1820–1894) were both in military service in Naples for the then ruling dynasty, the House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Both served with the rank of captain. In 1840, they were joined by their brother Amédée (1809–1899). After the death of his wife Marie Louise Emélie (1804–1838), he also settled in Naples for some time with his two daughters.

Théodora Élisabeth Catherine, Marquise de Broglie, née de Besenval (1718–1777), sister of Pierre Victor de Besenval, who acted as lady of the house at the Hôtel de Besenval, after she separated from her husband, Charles Guillaume Louis, Marquis de Broglie et Seigneur du Mesnil (1716–1786). Portrayed by Jean-Marc Nattier in 1742. Today this portrait is part of the collections of the Nationalmuseum.

Some members of the Maison de Broglie are the descendants of the French line of the family de Besenval. Pierre Victor de Besenval's sister Théodora Élisabeth Catherine, Marquise de Broglie (1718–1777), was married since 1733 to Charles Guillaume Louis, Marquis de Broglie et Seigneur du Mesnil (1716–1786), a cousin of Maréchal Victor-François, Duc de Broglie, on whose orders Pierre Victor de Besenval had withdrawn the troops from Paris on 12 July 1789. The couple lived at the Château de Mesnil-Voisin. Unfortunately, their only surviving child, their son Achille Joseph, Comte de Broglie (1740–1758), died already at the age of 18. In addition, the couple later separated, after which Pierre Victor de Besenval's sister moved to the Hôtel de Besenval and took care of the household for her brother. However, in 1884, Jeanne Eméline Cabot de Dampmartin (1864–1901), granddaughter of Amédée, Comte de Besenval (1809–1899), married François, Prince de Broglie (1851–1939). Amédée de Besenval's father Martin Louis, Comte de Besenval (1780–1853), was raised to the hereditary rank of comte by King Charles X on 18 March 1830. Consequently, Amédée inherited the title. It was the highest level of ennoblement that the family de Besenval achieved.

The descendants of this extended branch of the family de Besenval, the family de Broglie de Dampmartin, also had the extensive family archive in their possession until the 1980s with many original documents, also from the possession of Pierre Victor de Besenval and therefore with relevance for the history of the Hôtel de Besenval (75 boxes with documents, mostly from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries). Béatrix, Princesse de Broglie, née de Faucigny Lucinge et Coligny (1902–1990), handed over the family archive to the Fondation pour l'histoire des Suisses dans le Monde in the 1980s to exhibit it in their museum at the Château de Penthes. After the bankruptcy and dissolution of the Fondation pour l'histoire des Suisses dans le Monde in 2021, the de Besenval family archive was transferred to the state archive of the Canton of Solothurn, the hometown of the family de Besenval. However, by far the largest part of the collection of the dissolved Fondation pour l'histoire des Suisses dans le Monde was auctioned on 20 September 2022, by the auction house Piguet in Geneva, including other heirlooms from the family de Besenval.

In 1938, after over 150 years, the sofa and the six chairs were returned to the Hôtel de Besenval, where they once again form part of the furnishings of the Salon de la tapisserie.

The Alliance Tapestry: A testimony to Franco-Swiss diplomacy

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.

One of the most significant works of art in the Hôtel de Besenval today is the large 18th-century tapestry in the Salon de la tapisserie, produced in the Gobelins Manufactory. The production of the first copies of these tapestries began already in 1665. The copy in the Hôtel de Besenval was made between 1732 and 1735 in the studio of Dominique de la Croix (head of the studio between 1693 and 1737). The tapestry, woven based on a design by Charles Le Brun and a cartone by Simon Renard de Saint-André, is on loan by the Mobilier National.

The tapestry shows the historic moment of the festivities on 18 November 1663 in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris on the occasion of the renewal of the mercenary alliance of 1521, the so-called Soldallianz von Luzern, between France and the Swiss, which was negotiated by the two parties in the aftermath of the Battle of Marignano and the peace treaty of 1516, known as Traité de Fribourg or Paix Perpétuelle (Perpetual Peace). 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. And so one by one took the oath, which ended with the words of King Louis XIV: "Et moi aussi, je le promets" (And me too, I promise it).

The renewal of the alliance on the French side was negotiated by Jean de La Barde (1602–1692), the French ambassador to the Swiss cantons based in Solothurn. The alliance gave King Louis XIV the right to recruit up to 16,000 Swiss mercenaries. In return, the Swiss received certain trading privileges in France and a lot of money, which made some Swiss patrician families very rich, those families who put their regiments at the disposal of the king, such as the family de Besenval.

"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."

— Prof. Martin Körner (1936–2002), Vice President of the Swiss National Science Foundation (1997–2000), on the importance of the mercenary alliance of 1521 between France and the Swiss

The Special Relationship: The glorification of the king's diplomatic achievements with the Swiss

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.

This tapestry is part of the fourteen-episode sequel to the Histoire du Roi (The King's story). Seven copies of this so-called Alliance Tapestry were made, as a total of seven series of the fourteen-episode sequel to the Histoire du Roi were produced between 1665 and 1742. Four of the seven copies of the Alliance Tapestry have survived. In addition to the copy in the Hôtel de Besenval, there is also a copy in the Château de Versailles, in the Museum of the Gobelins Manufactory and in the Swiss National Museum in Zürich. The Zürich copy is from the fourth edition, created between 1729 and 1734. It is on loan by the Gottfried Keller Foundation, which acquired the tapestry from the Paris art trade in 1896. Until the French Revolution, this tapestry was kept in the Embassy of France in Rome.

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. The realisation of the fourteen-episode sequel to the Histoire du Roi – later, three more episodes were added – began in 1665. The aim was to present the most important events in the life of King Louis XIV in the military, civil and diplomatic fields.

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 renewal of the mercenary alliance with the Swiss was an important success for French diplomacy. This is also supported by the fact that this episode was presented in the Histoire du Roi at all.

"There is no one (...) who does not think that these foreigners [the Swiss] are the ones whose alliance the king must protect most carefully, if only because they separate Germany from Italy. But also, because when men make war their profession, it is no small task to recruit them and prevent them from being poached by the enemy."

— Armand Jean du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac, Principal ministre d'État, usually just referred to as Cardinal de Richelieu, on the importance of the mercenary alliance of 1521 between France and the Swiss in a letter to King Louis XIII in 1629

Entre cour et jardin

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 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. This work primarily affected the office space in the non-historical side wings of the Hôtel de Besenval, their attics and the attic of the corps de logis. Roughly said, all parts of the interior of the building that are not listed.

The renovation work, planned and carried out by the architects Herbert Furrer and Marc Zimmermann, was about bringing the infrastructure up to date (electricity and security), making the unused attics usable (working spaces) and creating contemporary workplaces in the existing office space. 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.

Renovation of the state rooms

The historical building structure of the corps de logis was only slightly affected by the renovation in the 1990s. It was only in 2017 and in the following three years that the historic interiors of the Hôtel de Besenval were renovated again as part of a major renovation. On this occasion, the antique furniture was also restored and some of it was reupholstered. A few pieces of antique furniture were also purchased to supplement the furniture. In addition, the curtains were largely replaced. 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.

The cour d'honneur, however, has resisted all modern fashion trends and renovations for centuries. It is still paved with the historic cobblestones à la Versailles on which already Pierre Victor de Besenval left his mark.

An English landscape garden in Paris

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.

Pierre Victor de Besenval had the garden of his residence on the Rue de Grenelle converted into an English landscape garden and cultivated rare and exotic plants in specially designed greenhouses. In order to obtain seeds and specimens of rare plants such as orchids, jasmines and tulips, the baron was able to rely on a wide network of friends. In 1785 he received bulbs of unknown flowers from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa through Colonel Charles-Daniel de Meuron from Neuchâtel.

Last but not least, the baron also managed to inspire Queen Marie-Antoinette with his passion for rare plants. At his suggestion, the queen had various precious plant species planted in the garden of the Petit Trianon.

A plant named after the Baron de Besenval

As in the field of the arts, the baron was also a patron in the field of botany. In 1782, Pierre-Joseph Buc'hoz named a plant after the baron to thank him for his support. Unfortunately, this plant had already received its scientific name a few years earlier and is therefore not known today as Besenvalia senegalensis but as Oncoba spinosa.

The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad

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.

As part of the 2024 Summer Olympics and the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, the Swiss Confederation set up a House of Switzerland in the garden of the Hôtel de Besenval. 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. It was the first time that a House of Switzerland was built on the premises of an Embassy of the Swiss Confederation.

Renovation of the nymphaeum and its use in the service of diplomacy

In the run-up to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and the decision to erect a temporary House of Switzerland in the garden of the Hôtel de Besenval, the unique nymphaeum, commissioned in 1782 by Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval, from the architect Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart and decorated by the artist Claude Michel, was also comprehensively renovated. In the course of the renovation, some contemporary interpretations of wooden replicas of Claude Michel's former decoration were made, such as one of the vases with relief decoration in one of the four niches. Today the nymphaeum serves on the one hand as a wine cellar for the Embassy of the Swiss Confederation and on the other hand as a reception or dining room for the Swiss ambassador on special occasions.

Further reading

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.

In alphabetical order

• Olivier Bauermeister: Le nymphée de l'hôtel de Besenval, Zeitschrift « Kunst und Architektur in der Schweiz », 2013, Band 64, Heft 2
• Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt: Contes de M. Le Baron de Besenval, Lieutenant Général des Armées du Roi, avec une notice bio-bibliographique par Octave Uzanne, A. Quantin, imprimeur-éditeur, tirage à petit nombre, 7, rue Saint-Benoît, Paris, 1881
• Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt: Mémoires de M. Le Baron de Besenval, écrits par lui-même, imprimés sur son manuscrit original et publiés par son exécuteur testamentaire M. A. J. de Ségur, imprimerie de Jeunehomme, rue de Sorbonne no. 4, Paris, 1805 – chez F. Buisson, libraire, rue Hautefeuille no. 31, Paris
• Jacques-François Blondel: Architecture Françoise, ou recueil des plans, élévations, coupes et profiles des Eglises, Maisons Royales, Palais, & Edifices les plus considérables de Paris, ainsi que des Châteaux et Maisons de plaisance situés aux environs de cette ville, ou en d'autres endroits de la France, bâtis par les plus célèbres architectes, & mesurés exactement sur les lieux, tome premier, contenant une introduction à l'architecture, un abrégé historique de la ville de Paris, & la description des principaux édifices du Faubourg St. Germain, chapitre XII: Description de l'Hôtel de Pompadour, situé rue de Grenelle. Chez Charles-Antoine Jombert, Libraire du Roi pour le Génie & l'Artillerie, rue Dauphine, Paris, 1752, pp. 236–237
• Germain Brice: Nouvelle description de la ville de Paris et de tout ce qu'elle contient de plus remarquable, 8ème édition, tome III, chez Julien-Michel Gandouin, Quai de Conty, aux trois Verus, et François Fournier, rue S. Jacques, aux Armes de la Ville, Paris, 1725, pp. 453–454
• 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 de Dardel: L’hôtel de Besenval – siège de l'ambassade de Suisse en France, Labor et Fides, Genève, 2013
• Jean-Jacques de Dardel: 1663: Le Renouvellement de l'Alliance avec le Roi de France – histoire et tapisserie, Labor et Fides, Genève, 2013
• 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
• Jean-Jacques Fiechter / Benno Schubiger: L'Ambassade de Suisse à Paris, Ambassade de Suisse, 2ème édition, août 1994
• Paul Gallois: Baron de Besenval's eclectic eye, The Furniture History Society, London, Newsletter 221, February 2021, pp. 1–12
• Martin Körner: Allianzen, Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS), online, Version vom 19.09.2006
• Charles Lefeuve: Histoire de Paris – rue par rue, maison par maison, 5ème édition, tome IV, C. Reinwald et Cie, 15, rue des Saints-Pères, Paris, 1875
• Collections Louvre: Paris, Hôtel de Besenval – nymphée souterrain à l'antique, Département des Arts graphiques, Alexandre Théodore Brongniart
• Elisabeth Martin de Clausonne: Ambassades à Paris, Nicolas Chaudun, Paris, 2009
• Sigrid Pallmert: Der Allianzteppich und die Fragen von Selbstdarstellung, Repräsentation und Rezeption, Zeitschrift « Kunst und Architektur in der Schweiz », 2002, Band 53, Heft 1
• Jean-Pierre Samoyault: L'Hôtel de Besenval – Ambassade de Suisse en France, Editions internationales du Patrimoine, Paris, 2017
• Matthias Steiner: Virtuelle und physische Repräsentation des historischen und aktuellen Zustands des « Nymphée de l’Hôtel de Besenval », Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz – Hochschule für Architektur, Bau und Geomatik, Bachelor-Thesis 2021 BSc in Geomatik (Produktion eines Modells des Nymphäums im 3D-Druck im Massstab 1:30)
• Alain Stella: Historic Houses of Paris – Residences of the Ambassadors, Flammarion, Paris, 2010
• Luc-Vincent Thiéry: Guide des amateurs et des étrangers voyageurs à Paris, ou Description raisonnée de cette Ville, de sa Banlieue, et de tout ce qu'elles contiennent de remarquable, tome II, chapitre 'Hôtel de M. le Baron de Besenval,' pp. 574–580, Libraire Hardouin & Gattey, Paris, 1787
• Alain-Jacques Tornare: 10 août 1792 – Les Tuileries : L'été tragique des relations franco-suisses, Collection Le savoir suisse – La série « Grandes Dates », presse polytechniques et universitaires romandes, première édition, 2012
• J. Vacquier: Les vieux hôtels de Paris – Le Faubourg Saint-Germain, décorations extérieures et intérieures, tome I, F. Contet, Paris, 1911

External links

• Stéphane Bern and his team visiting the Swiss Ambassador, Bernardino Regazzoni, at the Hôtel de Besenval in 2016
• The Hérès Company was commissioned to create the decorative stone elements of a swimming pool built into the basement of a 17th century hôtel particulier in Paris. For this hôtel particulier, the Hôtel Amelot de Bisseuil, also called Hôtel des Ambassadeurs de Hollande, Hérès came up with a decor inspired by antiquity, influenced by a project carried out by Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart in 1782 for Pierre Victor, Baron de Besenval de Brunstatt, for his nymphaeum at the Hôtel de Besenval. Hérès designed a swimming pool with a décor of columns, flat vaults and sculptures in the round and in bas-relief with a view to recreating the original ambiance of a nymphaeum in ancient times