Hôtel Bénazet

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 townhouse, classically situated between courtyard and garden, was built between 1775 and 1778 for the viscount Joseph de Saint-Chamans, at a time when the Chaussée d'Antin district was being developed and attracting a wealthy population of aristocrats, financiers and artists. It was heavily transformed in 1865 by the architect Charles Couteau (1824-1897) for the businessman Oscar Edouard Bénazet (1801-1867), who made his fortune by managing the casino in Baden-Baden, Germany: it was raised by one storey, its courtyard facade was simplified, it was given on the garden side a new perron and a veranda and was entirely reorganized internally, while its dependencies on the street were replaced by an apartment building. On the occasion of these works, the three drawing rooms arranged in enfilade on the ground floor, on the garden side, received a decor of wood panelling and neo-18th century plaster, enriched by paintings on canvases due largely to Alexis-Joseph Mazerolle (1826-1889). He is the author, in the central drawing room, of the five medallions above the doors illustrating the arts, and of four others, located in the corners of the ceiling, representing the four seasons. He also created the large ceiling painting of the western drawing room, which praises wine and table in the form of an allegorical or mythological scene. The attribution to his hand of the door panels of the same drawing room, devoted to hunting trophies, and those of the eastern drawing room, featuring musical instruments, as well as the ceilings, representing simple skies, of the central drawing room and the eastern drawing room, is less certain. The interest of the whole is also due to the main facade and especially to the porch of the building on the street, in a highly ornate neo-Renaissance style marked by the influence of the Louvre.