Malmaison
Chateau de Malmaison, residence of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine Beauharnais
France, Rueil-Malmaison
Malmaison is an estate in the suburbs of Paris, known as the residence of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine Beauharnais.
In the 10th century, the Normans brought their booty here. Hence, according to legend, the name: mal maison - “bad house”.
The Malmaison Palace was built in 1610 and was completed until 1686. Since 1737, the palace has been rented out to wealthy tenants. In 1763, it was bought by the son of Chancellor d’Aguesso, and in 1771 by the wealthy banker Jacques-Jean le Couteau du Molay. The banker's family slightly expanded the wings of the house overlooking the garden. Madame du Molay organized a literary salon in Malmaison, which was attended by Abbe Delisle, Madame Vigée-Lebrun, enlightenment philosopher Melchior Grimm and writer Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The turbulent events of the French Revolution forced the banker to sell Malmaison. The buyer was Josephine Bonaparte. On April 21, 1799, she purchased the estate by paying 15 thousand francs in advance.
Napoleon Bonaparte confirmed this purchase after returning from the Egyptian campaign and finally paid for the palace (full price from 250 to 300 thousand francs). Napoleon, already the first consul, loved to come here to relax or work. He ordered to make himself a small office-library and a meeting room in the castle. From 1800 to 1802, the French government met here and the ministers of the Consulate met informally.
In 1802, the first consul's family moved to the castle of Saint-Cloud, but Josephine continued to visit Malmaison. Napoleon hired architects who began rebuilding and decorating the palace, catering to the tastes of Madame Bonaparte.
Interested in botany, Josephine created a beautiful garden with a greenhouse on the estate, in which rare and exotic plants were grown.
Around 1803, she decided to create a catalog of her collection and entrusted the botanical descriptions to Etienne Pierre Vantenat and the illustrations to Pierre-Joseph Redoute. The result was the two-volume work Jardin de La Malmaison (1803–1805): one of the most outstanding examples of an illustrated botanical book of all time.
In 1809, after divorcing Josephine, the emperor retained her title of empress and gave her ownership of Malmaison. In the spring of 1814, Josephine received Russian Emperor Alexander I at Malmaison. Josephine caught a cold while walking with Alexander I. On May 29, 1814, the owner of Malmaison died.
The estate was inherited by Josephine's son, Prince Eugene Beauharnais, who hastened to sell Alexander the paintings that adorned it from the Kassel collection. Among other property of Josephine, four statues of Canova and a Gonzaga cameo were transported to the Hermitage.
After the prince's death, his widow sold Malmaison to the Swedish banker Jonas Hagerman.
In 1842, the estate was acquired by Christina of Spain, the widow of the Spanish king Ferdinand VII, and in 1861 the French Emperor Napoleon III, who was both the nephew of Napoleon I and the grandson of Josephine, became the owner of Malmaison.
Malmaison suffered greatly during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The beautiful palace housed a German barracks for some time.
In 1877, the state sold Malmaison to a merchant who built a park on the estate. And in 1896, the estate was acquired by the historian of the Napoleonic era Daniel Ifla, who wrote under the pseudonym “Osiris”. It was he who assembled a collection dedicated to Napoleon and bequeathed Malmaison to the state (1904).
Currently, Malmaison, together with the nearby Bois-Préau estate, forms a museum of the Napoleonic era. It was opened in 1906. Its last restoration was completed in 1992.
In the salons, reconstructed in the style of the First Empire, the furnishings of the early 19th century have been restored, portraits, household items of the imperial family and other memorabilia are exhibited, in particular the throne of Napoleon of Fontainebleau, the camp bed on which he died, his death mask.
