Museum Nissim De Camondo

5 June 2019 By city pass, PARIS, Paris Museums No Comments

The Mansion

  • Fascinated by the 18th century, Comte Moïse of Camondo built a mansion in the style of the Petit Trianon in Versailles.His aim was to recreate an eighteen-century artistic residence.
  • The mansion houses a beautiful collection of french decorative art from the second half of the eighteen century.
  • The museum is located a few steps from Parc Monceau.
  • He entrusted the construction of his mansion to the architect René Sergent (1865-1927).
  • The mansion was built between 1911 and 1914.
  • Today, the house is maintained in its original condition so that you can have a perfect picture of what it was like to manage and live in a private mansion at this time.
  • The modernity of the private house is impressing for the time of the construction. It was fully equipped, functional and comfortable ( heating system with warm, filtered air, compressed air elevators…).
  • The mansion houses some of the finest furniture and items from the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI.
  • You can admire the creations of cabinetmakers and carpenters that belonged to the Royal furniture repository such as Oeben, Riesener and Jacob.
  • You will discover the carpets from the Savonnery factory commissioned for the Louvre’s grande galerie.
  • The collection also displays pieces of the Orloff silver service ordered by Catherine II of Russia, porcelain services of the Sèvres factory and portraits by Élisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun.

The Camondo family

  • Moïse de Camondo was born in Istanbul into a Sephardic Jewish family.
  • The Camondo family owned a bank that became one of the largest banks in the Ottoman Empire.
  •  In 1867, the family was ennobled by Victor Emmanuel II.
  • The Camondo brothers Abraham-Behor and Nissim settled in Paris at the end of the Second Empire, in two mansions on rue de Monceau.
  • The two cousins of the next generation, Abraham-Behor’s son Isaac and Nissim’s son Moïse, became ingenious collectors.
  • Moise was passionate about the french art of the 18th century and needed a home that suited his tastes to house his collection of french furniture and artwork. As a consequence he rebuilt the family mansion with the help of the architect René Sergent.
  • He married Irène Cahen d’Anvers in 1891 and they separated in August 1897.
  • They got two children: Nissim and Beatrice who lived with him after the departure of Irène Cahen d’Anvers.
  • The first world war breaks out as the hotel has just been completed.
  • Nissim, became an airman and died for France in aerial combat in 1917.
  • After the tragic disappearance of his son, Moïse bequeathed his legacy to the French State in memory of Nissim and devoted himself  to his collection until his death.
  • During the second world war, the daughter of Moses, Beatrice, her husband Léon Reinach, and their children Fanny and Bertrand disappeared in the Nazi camps.