French Parlor

The majority of artwork and furniture in this room is of French origin. The room contains two Louis XIV chairs, and a Louis XV secretary made of tulipwood with ormolu mountings (gilt bronze made to represent gold) and topped with Italian marble. Next to the secretary, there is a Louis XV desk decorated with gold leaf. Finally, in the corner, there is a mahogany Louis XVI table with ormolu mountings and a marble top. Between the Louis the XIV chairs is an inlaid marble-topped table commissioned by Sarah and built around the medallion she received as a gift. The piano is Sarah’s 1890 mahogany Steinway.

The paintings in this parlor are from artists of the Barbizon School. Barbizon was a small French village on the outskirts of the Fontainebleau Forest, which a small group of artists flocked to in the mid-nineteenth century. Camille Corot, Theodore Rousseau, Narcisse Diaz de la Peña, Charles François Daubigny, Constant Troyon, and Jules Dupre represent the Barbizon School here. They strove for naturalism and a truer portrayal of the countryside. Other French painters on display here are Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Eugène Fromentin, and Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps.

On the northwest wall next to the fireplace is a collection of animal bronzes from the mid-nineteenth century by famed Parisian sculptor, Antoine-Louis Barye. The fireplace in the French Parlor is Italian marble. Atop the mantle sits a gilt bronze Empire clock. The room itself has walls covered with gold silk damask, which is stretched over the walls, almost like a canvas. The east wall holds two bronze sconces, which bear the Tudor Rose. The woodwork is Circassian walnut and the floors are oak. (Circassia is a region in the southeastern part of Russia.) The ceiling is coffered and covered in gold-leaf. Draperies, a Persian rug and a gold settee were added after the mansion became a museum.

Photography by Kevin Miyazaki.