HÔTEL DE
BOURRIENNE
https://www.napoleon.org/en/magazine/places/hotel-de-bourrienne/
Hôtel de Bourrienne
Bought and
completed in 1790 by Mr. Lormier-Lagrave, this town mansion the Hôtel de
Bourrienne was subsequently bequeathed to Lormier-Lagrave's daughter, Fortunée
Hamelin, in 1792. Fortunée, a friend of Joséphine de Beauharnais, then
commissioned Bélanger to decorate the house. However, heavily in debt, she was
forced to sell it in 1801 to Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, a former
companion of Napoleon's at the Military Academy of Brienne and his secretary
since 1796. Dismissed in disgraced by Napoleon for his fraudulent business
activities, he seldom occupied his home until his return after the Restoration.
In 1824, Bourrienne moved to the country and sold the mansion.
Whilst the
mansion owes its outside appearance to Bélanger, the Victories bearing with
laurel wreaths decorating the façade overlooking the garden were designed by
Leconte who had made the same for the Château de Villiers, bought by Murat in
around 1800. The interior decoration, in the style of the Consulate period, has
been preserved in many of rooms. The dining-room contains furniture by Jacob.
The study, whose ceiling was once decorated with a painting by Prud'hon, has
still the antique-style dadoes and cartouches, while the drawing room boasts a
fine series of stucco panels and a painted ceiling representing a canopy. The
bedroom is decorated in pure Pompeian style. The visit ends with the bathroom,
painted in blue and gold, with its delicately chiseled mirrors and small
columns. This charming town mansion is, in Paris, one of the few of the Empire
period open to the general public..
https://www.pariszigzag.fr/secret/lieux-insolites/hotel-bourrienne-demeure-dune-espionne-de-napoleon
L’histoire
de ce lieu commence en 1787 lorsque Justine Segard, femme de Préponnier de
Bazin, entreprend la construction de l’hôtel. Celle-ci s’achève en 1793, au
moment même où le quartier du Faubourg Poissonnière s’urbanise. Entre-temps, le petit hôtel est acquis par
M. Lormier-Lagrave. Sa fille, Fortunée Hamelin, dite madame Hamelin, prend
possession des lieux et opère à la décoration. Amie de Joséphine de
Beauharnais, cette femme d’esprit hors du commun devient vite une figure de la
mode et incarne l’idéal de “la merveilleuse”. Malicieuse, très entreprenante
avec les hommes, elle est très vite surnommée “le plus grand polisson de
France”. Belle et intelligente, elle parvient ainsi à séduire de grandes
figures de son époque. De Victor Hugo à Chateaubriand, en passant par Napoléon
Bonaparte, tous succombent au charme de madame Hamelin. On dit d’ailleurs de la
jeune femme qu’elle fut espionne pour l’Empereur, pour sa “faculté” à s’attirer
les faveurs d’un bon nombre de personnes.
Portrait de Madame Hamelin
Quant à l’hôtel,
il est à nouveau vendu en 1798 à Louis Prévost. Ce dernier le revend dans la
foulée 100 000 francs à Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne, secrétaire
particulier et ami de Napoléon Bonaparte. En plus de lui donner son nom,
Bourrienne entreprend d’importantes transformations de l’hôtel. Animés par sa
femme, les salons de l’hôtel figurent rapidement parmi les plus brillants de
Paris. Un succès pourtant de courte durée puisque la Révolution de 1830 fait
perdre à Bourrienne sa fortune. L’hôtel est ensuite vendu à plusieurs reprises.
En 1886, c’est Charles Tulen de Berny qui l’acquiert. L’homme dirige
notamment une fonderie de caractères d’imprimerie et installe ses ateliers dans
le jardin. Aujourd’hui,
l’hôtel appartient toujours à sa famille et est classé au titre des monuments
historiques depuis le 20 juin 1927.
The art of living under the Directoire: between
debauchery and refinement
https://bourrienne.com/en/all-articles/culture/lepoque-du-directoire/
Our brand,
Bourrienne Paris X, takes its name from the place where it was born: the Hôtel
de Bourrienne, one of the few Parisian buildings from the Directoire period
still intact today. The splendour of its salons and the richness of its
decoration give us a glimpse of the sumptuous parties that were held there,
bringing together equally colourful characters. However, for many, the period
of the Directory remains unclear and is the subject of many myths and
fantasies. What was this period? How did people live during this period? What
were the practices in vogue? What was the fashion? The general atmosphere?
These are all questions we asked ourselves at the beginning of the brand, whose
very essence is intimately linked to this four-year period, as rich as it was
short.
The Directory, a liberal but unstable regime
Paris, 10
Thermidor of the year II (27 July 1794). The fall of Robespierre (or rather of
his head) precipitated the end of the revolutionary government of the Terror
(1793-1794) and ushered in the so-called "Thermidorian" era. A year
later, the Constitution of the year III adopted in August 1795 by the
Thermidorians marks the advent of a new regime: the Directory. Succeeding the
Convention (1792-1794), the Directory was the second political regime of the
First Republic. It was distinguished politically by a bourgeois liberalism and
a stricter separation of powers, which were shared in a collegial manner. The
legislative branch was made up of two assemblies, the Council of Five Hundred
and the Council of Elders, which had 250 members. The former proposes laws that
must then be approved by the latter. The executive power is entrusted to five
Directors elected by the Council of Elders on the proposal of the Five Hundred
for a period of five years. Each of these Directors is responsible for a region
of France and a specific administrative area.
At the
outset, the Directory was intended to be a more democratic regime than the
previous one. A prominent figure in the regime, the Vicomte de Barras declared:
"Our desire is to consolidate the Republic and to restore social order in
place of the chaos that is inseparable from revolutions. This is the task of
the Directory".. The regime remains nevertheless rather unequal because of
the censal suffrage in place to elect members of the two legislative
assemblies. This method of voting, based on the level of wealth, excludes a
large proportion of citizens who are supposed to be equal in rights and duties.
The electoral college has only thirty thousand voters for a population of about
thirty million. Moreover, the regime is relatively unstable. Despite the
precautions taken to avoid any form of despotism, governance under the
Directory was disrupted by tensions between the Deputies and the Directors, who
frequently resorted to coups de force to impose their authority. Another
striking fact is the disastrous state of the economy. The country experienced
unprecedented inflation, which encouraged the practice of agiotage, a form of
dubious speculation on the price of money and goods, leading to the emergence
of a class of nouveau riche who shaped the directorial society.
The return of lightness in the Directoire society
Despite
this tense political and economic context, it is difficult to deny the
contributions of the Directory in the cultural fields that forged the French
art of living. The end of the Terror marked a break with the austerity of the
previous Jacobin period. Perceived by some as a relaxation of morals and by
others as the simple expression of individual freedoms, the renewed society of
the Directory allowed itself to indulge in pleasure. It was a time of
celebration: social salons reappeared, gastronomy developed with the appearance
of the first restaurants, and a "dancing fury", danceomania, took
hold. Hundreds of people flocked to the popular balls organized in the public
space. More than 600 public balls were organized during this period. One of the
most famous is the famous Victims' Ball where only those who claimed to have
lost relatives on the scaffold were admitted. They danced in mourning clothes
and saluted with a shake of the head, as if struck by the guillotine knife.
Frivolity,
luxury and extravagance became commonplace among the newly rich and the
aristocrats who had survived the Revolution and who flaunted themselves on the
Champs Elysées and in the gardens of Tivoli, Idalie, Monceau or Bagatelle.
Among the remarkable figures of the Directory, one finds the elite of style,
this noisy minority of the Parisian golden youth that are the Incroyables and
the Merveilleuses. They stood out for their allure and positioned themselves as
the deciders of "supreme good taste" in matters of conduct, dress and
language.
The Incredible
L'Incroyable
wore a melancholic look, with braids falling over his shoulders in a
"dog-eared" fashion, dressed in large, square, brightly coloured
clothes and carrying a large stick that served as a cane or weapon against the
Jacobins he encountered on his way. Beyond his appearance, the Incroyable is
recognizable by the way he speaks. As a sign of protest against the Revolution
and the fall of the King, the letter "r" was banished from his
language, giving rise to conversations that were "inc'oyable" to say
the least.
The Wonderful
La
Merveilleuse is the figurehead of this golden youth. According to the Goncourt
brothers, "the Thermidor revolution was the victory of women". In
their Histoire de la société française pendant le Directoire (1864), they recount:
"Once the Terror was dethroned, women resorted to their eternal role; they
pitied hearts in order to lead minds; they turned the political revolution into
a sentimental revolution. Then, with tears badly dried, they threw France
towards their patron: pleasure; and soon, they were the mistresses and queens
in this country which had just fasted from luxury, diamonds, gallantry and
parties. Never has woman occupied the public in such a way, never has she
touched business in such an apparent manner."
The
influence of these queens of the Directory is such that their fame sometimes
exceeded that of their spouse. Recognizable by their beauty and their sharp
wit, Mesdames Tallien, Bonaparte or Récamier stand out as the main leaders of
the Directory. Alongside them, more discreet in history but just as radiant,
Fortunée Hamelin is one of these queens of the Directory who is particularly
dear to our universe. Before taking the name of Bourrienne, the mansion where
Bourrienne currently resides Paris X was known as the small hotel of Bazin. It
was the property of Mrs. Hamelin who brought the decorations that we can still
find today. She is one of the main muses of our label.
These
Merveilleuses were at the centre of Parisian social and political life and imposed
their style throughout the regime. Borrowing from the ancient style of dress,
they made popular the light outfits with their long silhouettes and transparent
fabrics, reminiscent of the clothes of Greek and Roman deities. These light
dresses were sometimes the cause of great disturbances in the public space. An
anecdote about the Wonderful Fortune speaks volumes about this. While walking
on the Champs-Elysées with one of her friends, Fortune, then lightly dressed in
a diaphanous veil that did not hide much, was quickly pursued and called all
sorts of names. Scandal!
Ancient influence in art and architecture.
This renewed interest in the ancient period followed the archaeological research of the second half of the 18th century which allowed the identification of the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Neoclassicism spread to many artistic fields such as painting but especially architecture and decorative arts. The development of a new class of rich people allowed the luxury trade to flourish. These new fortunes called on the best craftsmen to build and decorate their mansions, which sprang up in the northwest of Paris, around the Chaussée d'Antin district. Elegance, refinement of form and perfection of execution characterize the interior decoration. The space is structured with columns, pilasters and friezes. The materials and colours are mixed and matched. Mahogany and ebony rubbed shoulders with silks and muslins in shades of parma, pale green or intense blue, which were very much in fashion at the time. The walls were decorated with representations of mythological scenes, imitation marble and trimmings. The Etruscan style of the furniture completes this ensemble, giving the whole a decadent richness that would be taken up again under the Empire a few years later. The Egyptian campaign led by Bonaparte was also a great source of inspiration for enriching these decorations.
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