The Count of Artois’s apartments at the Château de Maisons

In 1777, the château became the property of the Count of Artois, the last grandson of Louis XV and Marie Leszczynska and the future Charles X. That same year, he was granted the château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye as part of his appanage. He decided to make the Château de Maisons-sur-Seine his residence and to merge the two estates in order to have a large hunting ground at his disposal.

From 1779 onwards, the Count of Artois commissioned major interior alterations from his chief architect, François-Joseph Bélanger (1744–1818), one of the leading architects of the second half of^{the 18th} century and one of the most inventive in the art of varying interior décor, working for both the Court and private clients. Since the creation of the Bagatelle pavilion (1777), known as ‘la Folie d’Artois’, the architect—previously known as the draughtsman for Louis XVI’s Menus Plaisirs—enjoyed great prestige amongst his colleagues and younger peers. The new decorative schemes designed by Bélanger were executed by the sculptor Nicolas-François Lhuillier, a disciple of Piranesi, and the stucco artist Alexandre Régnier. Work came to a halt in 1781 due to the Count of Artois’s financial difficulties.

This ensemble is emblematic of European decorative art in the late^18th century, drawing on the ‘antique’-style motifs popularised by Piranesi, notably through his collection *Cammini*, published in 1769. For instance, the head of Medusa flanked by two swans is directly inspired by Piranesi. The other motifs—the Bacchantes, the Renommées, the cult of Priapus, and the eagle inspired by the famous relief from the Imperial period housed in the Roman Basilica of the Holy Apostles—derive from Piranesi’s followers.

An ‘eclectic’ aesthetic thus emerged, characterised by juxtaposed classical references, typical of European décor in England and France during the 1760s and 1770s. This style then spread rapidly throughout Europe, to the Rome of Raphael Mengs, the Sweden of Louis-Jean Desprez, the Russia of Charles Cameron, Giacomo Quarenghi and the Russian pupils of Ledoux and De Wailly, via Spain, where Jean-Démosthène Dugourc, Bélanger’s brother-in-law, produced masterpieces of the genre at El Escorial and Aranjuez.

François-Joseph Bélanger’s other major influence was English, from a visit he made to England in 1774. The décor for the adjoining room, also described as a dining room in the architect’s memorandum, consists of ‘antique green’ stucco panels arranged between the windows. This décor bears witness to the intense Anglomania of the second half of^{the 18th century} , insofar as the fashion for stucco—a mixture of plaster, lime and marble powder, with marble inclusions—originated in England.

The main dining room, situated in the corner of the château, features the most imposing décor: it combines an architecturally framed setting with numerous sculpted elements within an entirely mineral-based scheme. As in the work of Piranesi and the Cammini designs , the figures and ornamentation are subject to a very strong spatial structure. Here, it is the Corinthian columns and pilasters that organise the space, along with the four niches housing the statues of Ceres, Vertumnus, Erigone and Flora, representing the four seasons. These statues were executed solely in plaster, whereas they should have been carved in stone by four great^18th-century sculptors: Houdon, Boizot, Clodion and Foucou.

The ensemble evokes the sensuality of the meal, invoking the figures of Bacchus and the god Pan – a faun or satyr – the goat, and the festooned garlands of fruit, once again directly inspired by Piranesi ’s *Cammini *. The latter features fully sculpted fireplace surrounds, devoid of the traditional mirrors, in favour of a picturesque evocation of ancient ruins.

Above the front door, a medallion depicts two women adorning a statue of Priapus with garlands; this motif is borrowed from a print by William Wynne Ryland after Angelica Kauffmann (London, Science and Society Picture Library); similarly, the two young women sculpted above the fireplace are inspired by the paintings of Kauffmann, that famous, internationally successful female painter. These female figures, with their lascivious drapery and voluptuous breasts, are only noticed upon closer inspection amidst the profusion of sculpted ornamentation. Yet they are particularly striking, anticipating by twenty years Jacques-Louis David’s famous portrait of Juliette Récamier. The drapery on the female figures is simplified, hugging the contours of the body with simplicity, evoking the intense sensuality that would characterise fashion under the Directoire.

Edited by Alexia Lebeurre and Claire Ollagnier, François-Joseph Bélanger – Artist and Architect (1744–1818), Paris, Picart, 2021.

Piranesi and the French 1740–1790, exhibition catalogue, Rome, French Academy in Rome and Palais des États de Bourgogne, Dijon, May–November 1976, Rome, 1976.

Daniel Rabreau, ‘Interior decoration in Paris around 1800. The emergence of the Empire style’, The Emperor’s Houses. Residenze di Corte in Italia nell’età napoleonica, ed. by A. Varni, Ducal Palace, Lucca, Rivista Napoleonica, nos. 10–11 , 2005–2005, pp. 17–36.