Hôtel Mailly-Nesle

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Ministère de la Culture, in French. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Ministère de la Culture; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

History

The hôtel was built between 1632 and 1634 by master mason Etienne Goussault, for Jean IV de Monchy, marquis de Montcavrel, parallel to the quay, between a courtyard to the south and a garden overlooking the Seine to the north. It was enlarged by two wings in the 1680s, for Jeanne de Monchy and her husband Louis Charles de Mailly-Nesle under the direction of architect Libéral Bruand: a west wing returning towards the south, at the far end of the courtyard, and an east wing returning towards the north, aligned with rue de Beaune. It was divided into apartments from 1798, then broken up into seven lots in 1868. A large part of the buildings was then demolished to make way for new buildings: the west wing and the western part of the original main dwelling, as well as the outbuildings arranged around two small courtyards which opened to the south onto the present rue de Lille. In the preserved plot, leased to publisher-printer Firmin-Didot, then to bookseller-publisher Belin, two new building blocks were added: one on the quay, perpendicular to the east wing, the other along rue de Beaune, south of this wing, on the site of the former entrance portal of the old hôtel. What remained of the courtyard and garden was covered. The building was again modified between 1961 and 1966 to house the Documentation française, by architect of civil buildings and national palaces, J.-H. Riedberger: enlargement of the basement, creation of new glass roofs over the small courtyards, radical modification of the ground floor. The project underway in 2025 aims to install the library and documentation of the Musée d'Orsay there.

Description

What remains of the hôtel today includes part of the original building block, with its original façades (disfigured on the ground floor), the east wing, whose façades were completely redone in the first half of the 19th century, the secondary staircase cage, dating from the building campaign of the 1680s (with a handrail remade in the 19th century), and the décor of the three rooms which have benefited from historic monument protection since 1938 (ceiling by Jean I Berain, circa 1687, of the gilt salon, the panelling being copies from the 1960s, after the original panelling moved in 1910; rococo woodwork of the Régence salon; early 19th century décor of the so-called Directoire salon). To this is added what remains of the late 19th-century décor of the three rooms arranged on the site of the former gallery, on the 1st floor of the east wing: the neo-rococo panelling and ceiling of the "blue salon", the neo-rococo ceiling of the central room, and above all the narrative ceiling of the northern room, by painter Georges Picard (1857-1943), showing a female allegorical figure (culture, thought?) rising into the sky, accompanied by putti holding books and garlands of flowers.