A cabinet of curiosities will intrigue you in the Hotel Salomon de Rothschild
3 min read
At the beginning were the foundations of the former property known as “Folie Beaujon”, built in 1781 on the Monceau plain, in the deeper 8th district of Paris, by the architect Girardin for the banker Nicolas Beaujon. This construction had the size of the hamlet of the Queen Marie-Antoinette in Versailles and was then supplanted by the actual Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, between 1874 and 1878, by the architects Léon Ohnet and Justin Ponsard.
It replaced a set composed of a chapel, a mill, investment properties and the house of Balzac, under the decision of the Baroness Adèle de Rothschild because of their bad state and replaced by a rotunda in tribute of the famous writer.This project was then at the initiative of the Baroness, a way to immortalize those buildings, in a forward-thinking way, as clichés, before their demolition. She christened this new place, like a phoenix, in memory of her late husband Salomon who died suddenly in 1864. Also a great art lover, at her death in 1922, the Baroness Adèle de Rothschild bequeathed this Hotel, by testamentary way, to the French State with the goal to create the Rothschild Foundation in 1923, in order to sponsor the work of artists while providing them some accommodation and financial assistance.
A pious hope which finally turned away, that once was converted into a photography center then transferred in 1976 in the National Foundation of Graphic Arts and Plastics, consisting of entities composed by the family of the Rothschild family mingled with the title of sisters Smith Champion in 1944.Two mansions and their gigantic park of 10 hectares, located in Nogent sur Marne. These places currently host the MABA Art Center and the National House of Artists, managed by the Foundation hosted in the walls of the Hotel Salomon Rothschild. This majestic monument now houses offices of associations for artistic promotion, an event space and the Rothschild cabinet of curiosities.
This cabinet of curiosity contains 400 pieces mainly from the private Rothschild collection. This is completed by the Smith Champion sisters’ reserve, including 60 of their paintings, 10 paintings realized by the painter Henner and a consequent collection of 1500 works by MNA artists.The testament of the baroness of 150 pages allows us to trace the genealogy of the family and a significant part of the parisian socialite scene with some of its inspirers, like Proust, Charles Haas or the first wife of Bizet, Genevieve Halévy (photo Credits: Alexandre Plateaux).
The cabinet welcomes you with an original carpet and an important royal thematics among the objects coming from several civilizations.
You could also find more contemporary items such as chessboards, backgammon games, Iranian horn vases and vases made from bombshells of the 1st World War.
In addition, you could easily admire the large work of luminescence accomplished around the stained glasses (Photo credits: Alexandre Plateaux).
A typographic hanging was softly undertaken between Chinese ceramics and an incense burner, a full jade Buddha, Chinese wedding vases, Chinese enamels and also Chinese and German porcelains (Photo credits: Alexandre Plateaux)
Islamic Art including powder horns, a 17th century Ottoman rifle from the National Guard. A seventeenth century Cordoba leather wallpaper from Flanders, as well a pilgrimage gourd resting on a Turquin blue marble fireplace, supplanted by an Italian mirror of the 17th century and Rothschild called wall sconces (Photo credits: Alexandre Plateaux).
Some of these pieces are not in showcase in order to be closer to the visitor.
A place opened to visitors, the first Saturday of each month at 11 am and the 2nd Wednesday from 12.30 pm (for an unit admission price of 10 €), to discover this unique place.
Hotel Salomon de Rothschild, 11 Rue Berryer, 75008 Paris. Reservations at:
00 33 (0)1.45.63.23.56.
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