Audaces d'un style : Les intérieurs sous le Consulat
Auteur(s) : Collectif
Exhibition at the Château de Bois-Préau, Rueil-Malmaison, 19 November 2025 – 9 March 2026
The decade spanning 1795 to 1804 saw the blossoming of a rich and vibrant lifestyle. The festive spirit of the extravagant, golden youth of the Directory was mirrored, under the Consulate, by a society in the midst of transformation’s appetite for luxury. The elegance of lines and the craze for the exotic, inherited from the 18th century, blended with influences from Rome, Pompeii and the Renaissance, not to mention those of ancient Egypt. Charles Percier and Pierre-Léonard Fontaine, iconic interior designers, played a decisive role in the development of this new stylistic language.
Like a trend book conceived by an architect of the time, this exhibition catalogue invites visitors to decipher the forms, patterns, ornaments and colours that reflect this stylistic renewal. It also draws on several characteristic examples of Parisian luxury, such as the mansions of Madame Récamier and General Moreau, or the consular couple’s residence on Rue Chantereine, to highlight this art of living as it is expressed in the private sphere.
