The Apartments of Napoleon III in the Musée du Louvre is a bit of a misnomer. Even the Louvre website titles them the “so-called Apartments of Napoleon III”. Most believe that the 2nd and last Emperor of France lived there, it’s not a big leap and the name would have you believe this is a fact. However, I am here to set the story straight and give you all the gilded details of these beautiful rooms of the Louvre.
Under the reign of Napoleon III, he transformed the city into the Paris we know today. Large boulevard lined with beautiful buildings and wrought iron balconies. Streets topped with monuments and parks dotting the neighborhoods. One of his greatest projects he would tackle was the transformation of the Palais des Tuileries and the Musée du Louvre.
The Palais du Louvre re-imagination started by François I in the 16th century and conceptualized under Henri IV would finally come to fruition over 200 years later with Napoleon III. Living in the Tuileries and naming himself Emperor as one does he wanted to set up his government a short walk away and installed many of the offices in the Tuileries and Louvre.
On July 25, 1852, the first stone of the Richelieu wing for the “New Love” was laid with a goal in mind to finish by the 1855 Universal Exposition. Inaugurated on August 14, 1857, the next day on Saint Napoleon’s Day, the public entered the newly improved Louvre. The Louvre of the 18th and 19th centuries was a far cry from what we know it today. Now it stretches to close to nine miles of gallery space, however, in the time of Napoleon III, it was mostly reserved for offices.
In 1852, Napoleon brought back the position of the Minister of State. It was a pre-curser to the Ministry of Culture and oversaw the museums, arts, and theater as well as the Emperor’s parties. It was under the second minister Achille Fould that saw the movement of the offices from the Tuileries to the new arm of the Palais du Louvre in the Richelieu wing.
Architect Hector-Martin Lefuel took over the New Louvre project after the sudden death of Louis Visconti in 1853. Carrying out the original plan with a few changes and having input on every small detail. Visconti was fine letting the inner decor of the structure be led by others but not Lefuel. He wanted a say in every curtain, wall hanging, and painting and let it be known. However, he would meet his match with Minister Fould who also had strong ideas on what his offices and private apartments should look like.
What began under Napoleon Bonaparte at the start of the 19th century aligning himself with the over-the-top glitz and guiding of the Ancien Regime. Napoleon III would crank it up a few notches and spread it around into any of the projects he took on and become the style of Napoleon III. Inspired by the Hotel de Soubise and Versailles, the style of Louis XV for the private rooms and Louis XIV style for the ceremonial rooms continued into the Louvre.
Lefuel used modern techniques and cut corners where he could due to time constraints and costs. Pasteboard instead of carved wood or stucco for wall decorations and electroplating instead of durable wrought iron. This would backfire then many things had to be replaced as they didn’t stand up to time.
The Apartments of the Minister give us a glimpse of what the Palais des Tuileries looked like and the decor created under Empress Eugenie. Destroyed in the Commune of 1871, nothing remains of the palace’s interior and the destruction would later lead to the second life of the ministry apartments.
Minister of State Achille Fould was born in Paris on November 17, 1800. His father was a banker and thought Achille would follow in the family’s footsteps. Named the minister of Finance in 1849 under the first President of the Republic, Napoleon III. He held the job until the 1851 coup d’etat. He would be promoted to Minister of State and the Household of the Emperor which also placed him in charge of the Musée du Louvre and a major role in the restoration of Notre Dame de Paris.
Small design elements of the apartments were encouraged by Fould. Artists chosen, changing imitation terracotta in the paintings to stone and movement from the private apartment to offices. Sadly, Fould would be out of the job when the rooms were finally inaugurated in 1861.
Count Alexandre Walewski, cousin of Napoleon III took over the role of Minister and inaugurated the rooms with a lavish ball on February 11, 1861. Walewski was the son of Countess Marie Walewski who met Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806 in Poland. She was encouraged to get close to Bonaparte to help Poland gain independence from Prussian and Russian rule.
Claiming this was the only reason however she would follow him from Poland to Vienna and finally Paris. In 1809 she discovered she was pregnant and returned to Poland and her husband for the last few months of her pregnancy. Claiming the baby was his son but one look at the child and Napoleon knew he was his. Although he was never legitimized it was also the proof Bonaparte needed to know that he wasn’t the issue in the bedroom with Josephine and would lead to their divorce. In 2013 a DNA test was done on a few of his descendants and he is confirmed to be the son of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Just one look at the Count in photos as he got older is very clear to see. He would go on to have a few illegitimate children including a son with French actress Rachel who we have covered in a past episode.
The night of the inauguration on February 11, 1861, a party that was talked about for generations saw the who’s who of Paris arriving. For three hours a constant stream of over two thousand attendees dressed in the haute couture of the day arrived. A large May Pole was set up in the Grand Salon and the music of Beethoven, Liszt, Verdi, and Mozart played while soprano Pauline Viardot sang.
Two years later the ministry changed once again with Aguste Billault taking over for a few short months until he died in office and was replaced by Eugene Rocher. Madame Rocher would make the biggest changes in the private apartments by moving her husband downstairs into the lower mezzanine taking over the larger rooms and adding a boudoir. Madame Rocher was hard to convince to leave her property on the edge of Paris where she had a wide array of animals including swans, cows, and sheep. Many of her animals went to the farm of Marshall Vaillant and the sheep lived out their life in the basement of the Louvre.
The ministry was abolished in 1869 and the Ministry of Letters and the Fine Arts moved in until the collapse of the Empire of Napoleon III. As a result of the Seige of Prussia and the actions of the Emperor that led to many angry Frenchmeto the Bloody Week of May 1871 saw the destruction of many of the buildings of Paris.
The Palais des Tuileries was a pivotal monument of their anger and they quickly set their sights on the Ministry of Finance on the Rue de Rivoli and the Imperial Library located in the Palais du Louvre. The Tuileries and Ministry were destroyed and burnt to the stone walls. Now without a home, the Ministry of Finance squatted in the Louvre. A few short weeks later Adolphe Thiers made it official and signed the offices over to Finance.
In 1873 restoration work began on the former library of the Pavillon Richelieu and the offices of the Ministry that expanded throughout the wing and seven floors. In 1905 part of the office was allocated to the Musée des Arts Decoratifs.
No longer using the private apartments to live they became part of the official offices of the minister including the future president of France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing from 1969 to 1974. The fancier rooms were used for ceremonial events until 1989.
In 1981 Francois Mitterand initiated the Grand Louvre project which would see the building of the Pyramid, changing the layout of the Louvre and the need for more space. The Ministry was told to leave and new offices down the Seine in Bercy were being built. New minister Edouard Balladur didn’t like the idea and decided he was going to stay in the Louvre. The negotiating delayed the project a year until they could push it out just in time for the inauguration of the Pyramid on March 30, 1989.
The seven levels of the Richelieu wing were not going to line up with the design of the museum and most of the interior was demolished to rebuild into three floors. The exception was the rooms of the ministry which were restored but still hold their original decor.
Recently cleaned and restored the rooms reopened on June 21 and I was the first one in the door to once again stand under the large chandeliers.
Next week we will share the details on the decor and functions of each room.