Painted decorations of the La Rivière Hotel

Le Brun, Charles (atelier de)

    • Between 1652 and 1656
    • Oil on canvas and oil on plaster
    • Acquired in 1872
    • P2097 to P2110

After training with the great masters in Paris and Rome, Charles Le Brun received a number of prestigious Parisian commissions. His facility for invention, which took in all the arts, made him a specialist in ambitious decors.

In 1652, he was entrusted with decorating the mansion belonging to Louis Barbier, Abbey de la Rivière, located on Place Royale (now 14 Place des Vosges).

The main motif of the gilded study represents the break of day. It was painted directly on the masonry coating and mounted stone by stone. The story of Psyche in the large bedroom is spread across the ceiling canvas and the coving. The paintings are framed with a luxurious stucco ornamentation made by Gerard Van Opstal.

After the French Revolution, the La Rivière mansion was used for various purposes, serving as the city hall for the arrondissement, as a school and as the Rue des Tournelles synagogue. The most precious elements were removed and reinstalled at the Carnavalet Museum starting in 1878. These decors composed the first period rooms, rooms that are designed to reconstitute the atmosphere of a particular epoch.