A must-see
article | Reading time3 min
Discover the luxurious neoclassical decor commissioned by the Count of Artois, owner of château de Maisons in 1877 !
A BREATH OF FRESH AIR
At the request of the Count of Artois, Louis XVI's brother and future Charles X, the architect François-Joseph Bélanger was called in to modernize the building to suit the tastes of the time. The multi-purpose living rooms became more specialized, with the birth of the dining room!
Restructured to accommodate the "dining apartment" - buffet room, dining room and games room - the right wing has retained almost all of its original form, in keeping with the classical spirit of François Mansart.
©Catherine Mergalet - Centre des monuments nationaux
WHAT A SCENERY !
The dining room is lavishly decorated by the greatest artists of the time : Lhuillier, Houdon, Focou, Boizot, Clodion and Régnier. Corinthian columns and pilasters frame the windows, niches in the walls shelter statues of the Seasons, and two statuary groups decorate the top of the fireplace and the door. The ceiling is composed of 9 panels richly decorated with a sun, rosettes, griffons , cherubs and floral motifs.
©Benjamin Gavaudo - Centre des monuments nationaux
REAL OR FAKE ?
The games room, also known as the stucco room due to its decor composed entirely of stucco, imitates a variety of marbles. The composition is rounded off by sculpted overdoors.
This exceptional testimony to late 18th-century lifestyle and neoclassicism remains unfinished, as several of the large statues are still in plaster, as they could not be executed in stone before the Revolution and the exile of the Count of Artois!
© Philippe Berthé / Centre des monuments nationaux