The Comte d’Artois, prince and patron

The future Charles X makes for a fascinating exhibition subject, sprinkled with a dash of iconoclasm, given the poor historiographical reputation of the last king of France. A visit to the resplendent Château de Maisons is therefore justified. There was, a priori, reason to expect a kind of focus exhibition, but the parcours instead surprises by its richness and density, arranged with subtlety by Naori Yamazoe and Alexandre Demaret of the AtoY agency, who knew how to nestle within the historic spaces and salons, furnished or not, of the Château de Maisons. Already accustomed to this type of building, the AtoY studio [1] perfectly succeeded in equipping with display walls and vitrines (ill. 1 and 2) the ground-floor rooms of the château by François Mansart, purchased for the Comte d’Artois in 1777, the prince then establishing a fief for himself in the west of Paris.

As can readily be seen when observing at the entrance to the exhibition the Map of the Hunts of Monseigneur the Comte d’Artois (ill. 3), lent by the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris, the territorial network of properties gradually acquired by the king’s brother was impressive, from Maisons to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, via his best-known residence, the Bagatelle folly. We have not yet had the opportunity to return to the recent developments of this heritage adventure since 2019 (see the article) : it owes much to the action of the Fondation Mansart, lending partner of the Maisons exhibition. Supported by several good fairies, including the Fondation La Marck, well known to readers of La Tribune de l’Art, the Fondation Mansart continues to work to restore the building and to…