Joséphine Et Napoléon : L'hôtel De La Rue De La Victoire

Exhibition at the Château de la Malmaison, 15 October 2013-6 January 2014

In 1795, Josephine de Beauharnais moved into a private mansion in the heart of the Chaussée d'Antin, the new business district. The premises were well known in Paris: literary and theatrical figures, the high aristocracy and then Girondin circles liked to meet there from the 1780s onwards. The "little house" accompanied Napoleon's political ascension in a Directoire France that yearned for appeasement: Josephine furnished it with luxury and refinement, sparing no expense to bring it up to the level of the most elegant decorations of the time. The building was destroyed in 1857.

In this exhibition catalogue, objects and reconstructions bring back to life a place that has disappeared, emblematic of the Napoleonic epic, through its decorations and furniture designed especially for the place by Corneille Vautier, Charles Percier, the Jacob brothers...