Renovation of the Musée Lambinet in Versailles

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1. Le Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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Crushed by the château, which attracts the vast majority of tourists visiting Versailles, the Musée Lambinet (ill. 1), a municipal museum, is having trouble making itself known, and that is a great pity, because it preserves many first-rate works. Housed in the hotel built in 1752 by Joseph Barnabé Porchon and donated by Nathalie Lambinet in 1926, it has benefited from renovation and reopened in December. The new presentation also aims to make it better known. Although the work was carried out with limited resources, the exhibition space was increased, which is a good thing. Many paintings and art objects can now be seen here, and a visit is desirable for all art lovers. While many good things have been achieved, it is a pity that some of the facilities have been badly botched. Fortunately, we hope that these mistakes can be rectified without too much difficulty.


2. Jean-Jacques Bachelier (1724-1806)
Chat angora blanc guettant un papillon, vers 1761
Huile sur toile - 66 x 81 cm
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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3. Hubert Robert (1733-1808)
Geôlier inscrivant les noms
des prisonniers entrant à la prison
Saint-Lazare
, vers 1793-1794
Huile sur assiette en terre de pipe
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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Very rich in 18th-century works, the museum preserves many remarkable paintings from this period, including, from the ground floor - which will be given over to temporary exhibitions - the beautiful White Angora Cat by Jean-Jacques Bachelier (ill. 2), which was part of the municipal library’s collections before the creation of the Musée Lambinet. In a display case installed in a passageway preceding the first room, one can admire a plate painted by Hubert Robert (ill. 3), a rare testimony to his imprisonment during the Revolution, of which other examples are kept in private collections or occasionally appear on the art market (see for example this article).


4. Salle présentant le legs Thiry
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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The first room (ill. 4), where several works from the Thiry bequest are presented, is cut in two by a partition on the floor, the purpose of which is to prevent visitors from getting too close. And it works: you can hardly make out any of the paintings, which are far too small to withstand such treatment. You can’t see anything, Daniel Arasse might say, and that’s annoying in a museum, especially since what’s on the walls - paintings by Corot, Bonington, Lagrenée, Roqueplan, etc. - is interesting. The wall opposite, however, is entirely devoid of works, since half the room is devoted to the passage of visitors. It is hard to believe that such an arrangement was imagined, and one hopes that no one will step on this barrier used to "secure" the works. Solution: remove it, hang paintings on all the walls, and secure them as all other museums do (good wall fixings, glass if necessary - but anti-reflective - and video and/or human surveillance).


5. Salle du Musée Lambinet avec
une harpe de Naderman
Photo : Didier Rykner
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6. Une salle du Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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The next room is devoted to ceramic long-term loans from the Richaud Hospital, where the objects are shown in display cases embedded in the woodwork. The presentation here is classical and allows the works to be seen properly, while some of the following rooms are partly closed to the public by the same low barriers with labels of the type we saw for the Thiry collection. In some cases, this is more understandable: when the museography is treated as a "period room", setting up the furniture and works as if it were a room in a private mansion, with its wood panelling, which it is. In the "dining room" (ill. 5), where Naderman’s harp is displayed, there is no need to get closer to the works than in the "bedroom". On the other hand, this type of museography, even if it can be accepted in these very specific cases, is always awkward for paintings or sculptures that can only be seen from a distance (ill. 6).


7. Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)
Crucifixion, d’après Rubens, 1845
Huile sur panneau
Collection particulière
Photo : Didier Rykner
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8. Atelier de Carle Van Loo (1705-1765)
Énée portant son père Anchise
Huile sur toile - 129,5 x 99,2 cm
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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9. Nicolas Bertin (1667-1736)
La Résurrection de Lazare
Huile sur toile
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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Other rooms upstairs are treated more classically, with picture rails and paintings, and without too much distancing. In one, one can admire paintings on loan from a private collection: a Mirgin and Child and an Ecce Homo by Giandomenico Tiepolo, The Washerwomen by Gustave Courbet or a Crucifixion by Eugène Delacroix after Rubens (ill. 7), which we are told will be the subject of a donation to the museum (we will, of course, talk about this again when it becomes a reality). In other rooms, paintings from the museum’s collection are on display, which is particularly rich, something we might have forgotten since the museum had remained so discreet: French painting, with Carle Van Loo (ill. 8), Nicolas Bertin (ill. 9), Hyacinthe Collin de Vermont or Jacques de Lajoüe, but also Italian painting (Luigi Miradori or Francesco del Cairo)...


10. Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828)
Maquette du Voltaire assis, 1778
Terre cuite - 30,4 x 13,2 x 17,3 cm
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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11. Michel-Victor Acier (1736-1799)
Saint Marc
Terre cuite
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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The museum is also well supplied with 18th century sculptures, with works by Houdon (ill. 10), Pajou, Jean-Baptiste II Lemoyne or lesser-known but no less interesting artists, such as Michel-Victor Acier, whose beautiful terracotta Saint Marc can be seen (ill. 11). One room is fitted out with modern showcases filled with precious objects, boxes and fans... Once again, we are much more reticent about the museographic choice made for some of the furniture. How can furniture still be displayed on pedestals today (ill. 12)? Above all, how can we accept seats glued to the walls as if they were paintings (ill. 13)?


12. Une curieuse façon d’exposer
des commodes
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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13. Une non moins étrange manière
d’exposer des sièges
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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14. Salle des collections Asse et Guy
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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An entire room (ill. 14) is devoted to nineteenth-century paintings, from neoclassicism to post-impressionism, which brings together two collections donated to the museum, the Asse collection for the former, the Guy collection for the latter, the latter donated under reserve of usufruct in 1991 and received by the museum at the end of 2004 (see news item of 19/5/06). This makes it possible to see many works as well as some that do not belong to either of these collections, such as the famous Effect of Melodrama by Louis-Léopold Boilly (ill. 15), which was purchased in 1987. In the centre of this room there is also a collection of sculptures in bronze, marble and plaster.


15. Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845)
L’Effet du mélodrame, vers 1830
Huile sur toile - 35,5 x 41,7 cm
Versailles, Musée Lambinet
Photo : Didier Rykner
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16. Une salle du Musée Lambinet avec une couleur bleue un peu violente
Photo : Didier Rykner
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Several rooms are devoted to the history of Versailles under the Ancien Régime, where some major paintings can be seen, including François Boucher’s sketch for the Predication of St John the Baptist which we wrote about here when it was acquired in 2005 (see news item of 25/4/06). The history of the Revolution is also present, and if we have to be a little critical, it is not about the visibility of the works, which can be approached here without any problem, but about the colour of the picture rails, which we feel is a little too bright (ill. 16).

Let us mention the publication of a "guide to the collections" which is rather well done and well illustrated but which, like all works of this kind, may seem a little frustrating, as it only constitutes a selection of works, far from the indispensable exhaustive catalogues that one would like to find for such a collection, which is still deprived of a database and even of a dedicated internet site.

"Qui aime bien châtie bien": the criticisms we have made of this new arrangement should be understood in this way. Lambinet is a very endearing museum with remarkable collections, which undoubtedly deserves a visit. While some of the choices made are regrettable and should, in our opinion, be rectified, this should in no way dissuade visitors from visiting it. Versailles is not just about the château.


Under the direction of Emilie Maisonneuve and Charlotte Bellando, Musée Lambinet-Musée d’art et d’histoire de Versailles. Guide des collections, Silvana Editoriale, 2022, 216 p., 20 €. ISBN: 9788836653089.

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