Discover the Musée Nissim de Camondo

Guests arriving at Moïse de Camondo’s home were welcomed here, in the Hall. The Hall and Gallery are on the same level as the main courtyard; the other parts of the Lower Ground Floor are half underground on the garden side, and contain the service areas.

Moïse de Camondo was a lover of good food who devoted particular attention to his Kitchen, which is particularly spectacular. Today’s visitors can enter it straight from the hall, but staff and tradesmen used the service entrance, which opened onto a private passageway leading to the Boulevard Malesherbes.

The Servants’ Dining Room (or “Salle des Gens”) is visible through the serving-hatch. The 3.70 meter-long table was made according to specifications found in the archives. The fifteen numbered lockers on the left side of the back wall were used for storing the servants’ personal belongings: napkins, bowls, medicines, etc.

The Scullery features a double copper sink for washing pans, utensils and kitchenware. The sinks are fitted into a cast iron and black sheet metal frame; to keep the washing-up water hot, the sink on the right has a double shell which allowed steam to circulate. Soda crystals made the washing-up water corrosive; it had to be very hot to clean the pans which were left to soak, as scrubbing would have damaged their tin coating.

There is a swing door beween the Kitchen and the Chef’s Office. The latter features a dumbwaiter that took dishes up to the Pantry on the floor above. There is a glazed panel between the office and the service entrance, with an opening window for overseeing the delivery of foodstuffs ordered by the chef.

The reception rooms are all on the Upper Ground Floor. They are accessed by a large Gallery with two perpendicular arms that reflect the layout of the mansion. To light the Great Staircase, Moïse de Camondo chose the kind of large hanging lantern that would have been used in the eighteenth century. The eight chased bronze wall sconces in the staircase and Gallery came from the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

The walls of this room are paneled in natural oak which frames the Aubusson tapestries depicting the fables of La Fontaine. The furniture includes two “voyeuse” chairs made by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Séné for the Turkish Room of the Château de Montreuil, residence of King Louis XVI’s sister, Madame Elisabeth, and a large roll-top desk, stamped by Claude-Charles Saunier, that stands in the alcove. The room also features a Bacchante by Elisabeth Vigée-LeBrun, clocks, barometers, candelabra and vases, carefully chosen and arranged by Moïse de Camondo.

This large corner room opens onto the garden. Its white and gilt wood paneling, which came from the drawing room of the Comte de Menou’s mansion at 11, rue Royale in Paris, provides a splendid backdrop for the many masterpieces that Moïse de Camondo displayed here. The furniture comprises a chest of drawers with sliding doors by Jean-Henri Riesener, a precious “Bonheur du Jour” ladies’ writing desk by Carlin, a pair of low cabinets with Japanese lacquer panels by Adam Weisweiler and a suite of seating furniture upholstered in Aubusson tapestry and stamped by Georges Jacob.

This oval drawing room, in the center of the garden facade, was specially designed to house the series of pastoral scenes painted by Jean-Baptiste Huet. The room contains several pairs of furniture pieces, such as the two gilt and silvered bronze console tables, reflecting Moïse de Camondo’s taste for symmetry and balance.

Like the Great Drawing Room, the Dining Room is a corner room. Its green-painted wood paneling is interspersed with four panels of petit point embroidery representing vases of flowers, and a Beauvais tapestry, “Net Fishing,” based on a composition by François-Joseph Casanova. Two other tapestry compositions reflect the taste for still lifes: “The Brioche” and its companion piece “The Cream Service” were woven at the Gobelins factory from paintings by Anne Vallayer-Coster.

This small room, also known as the “Salon Anglais,” gives onto the main courtyard. Its walls are covered with crimson silk; its furnishings are elegant. The remarkable oil sketches painted by Jean-Baptiste Oudry show various episodes from the Royal Hunts of Louis XV, reflecting Moïse de Camondo’s interest in that activity. They are accompanied by views of Venice by Francesco Guardi, and paintings of the Porte Saint-Denis and the Porte Saint-Martin in Paris, by Hubert Robert.

This is where the butler received the dishes that the cook placed in the dumbwaiter. A food-warmer (which could also serve as a plate-warmer) kept them warm if necessary. An ice-box, hidden in one of the sideboards, kept the dessert sorbets cool. The porcelain crockery and glasses were also stored here, and were washed in the double copper sink. An ozone sterilizer above the sink was used to purify the water. A second pantry on the mezzanine floor above was reserved for cleaning the silverware.

The garden was designed by the landscape architect Achille Duchêne (1866-1947), renowned for his creation of large “parterres de broderies” (ornamental garden designs) for châteaux. He also designed many urban gardens, particularly in Paris. Most of the garden is occupied by a shady lawn, conducive to relaxation, while scrolls of boxwood on the terrace harmonize with the architecture of the mansion.

The Blue Drawing Room took the place of Béatrice’s apartments. After her marriage to Léon Reinach and the birth of their two children, the family continued to live at her father’s house, but when they moved to Neuilly in 1923, Moïse de Camondo turned his daughter’s bedroom and boudoir into a large, light-filled room that he used as a drawing room/study called the “Salon Bleu” (“blue drawing room”) because of the colour of the wood paneling (which was originally painted peacock blue but has turned green with age).

This rotunda-shaped room in the center of the mansion’s private apartments boasts a beautiful panoramic view of the Parc Monceau. The height of this floor was determined by the carved oak paneling that gives the library a warm atmosphere. This is where Moïse de Camondo studied his auction catalogues and periodicals, such as the Gazette des Beaux-Arts, lovingly bound in red morocco.

The apartments consist of a Bedroom, Bathroom and Dressing Room. For his Bedroom, Moïse de Camondo chose wood paneling from a house on the Cours du Chapeau Rouge in Bordeaux. The alcove contains a bed dating from 1765-1775, with three carved and painted wood headboards. The walls are hung with genre scenes and portraits.

Nissim’s apartment has not been preserved in its original state; the furniture is now in his study. A portrait of his grandfather, Comte Nissim de Camondo (1830-1889), painted by Carolus Duran in 1882, hangs above the steel and gilt bronze bed. A bronze equestrian statuette representing his sister Béatrice, made by Georges Malissard in 1923, stands on the demi-lune chest of drawers. Several early nineteenth-century paintings reflect the Camondo family’s interest in hunting and horse riding.

The three Bathrooms are rather similar to those in luxury hotels, being functional rooms without decorative effects or luxury materials. The walls are covered in white tiles arranged in a cabochon pattern and a blue, green or yelllow frieze (depending on the apartment). The vaulted ceilings are varnished with Ripolin enamel paint.