Once upon a time there was a famous royal duke, one of the grandest men in France. He was Philippe II (1674–1723), Duke of Orléans, Regent of France, soldier, aesthete and prominent art collector. We’ll call him the sleeping beauty’s father. He and his wife disliked each other. Despite having eight children with her, he called her Madame Lucifer. The duke was happier with his favourite mistress, the Countess of Argenton, so in 1703–05 he built her a magnificent hôtel particulier in the garden of his home, the Palais Royal. This building, which was known as the Chancellerie d’Orléans, is the beauty of our story.
The renowned 18th-century architect Germain Boffrand was commissioned by the duke to build what became the most celebrated private house in Paris, complete with lavish and fashionable embellishments. The dwelling flourished, and was passed down through the family to Marc-René, Marquis de Voyer d’Argenson, who also inherited the title of Chancellier d’Orléans (Chancellor of Orléans) in the 1760s. Together with the architect Charles de Wailly, the marquis set about an extravagant makeover of the building, commissioning leading artists and sculptors to work on it. A collection of elegant sculptures came from Augustin Pajou, ceilings were designed by Gabriel Briard, Louis Jean-Jacques Durameau and Jean-Honoré Fragonard (whose Rococo contribution was later replaced with a Greek-style scene by Jean-Jacques Lagrenée). One original 1710 ceiling, a work by Antoine Coypel, was retained in the renovation thanks to its exceptional importance and beauty. De Wailly’s new interiors were in the Classical style, with decorations inspired by ancient Roman and Greek architecture. Representing a marked shift away from the Rococo curves that had previously held sway, it was a forerunner of a new design movement, and became celebrated as the first Neoclassical décors in the country.
Cut to 1913, when France passed its first laws to protect historic buildings. The Chancellerie, with one of the most important surviving domestic designs in Paris, was first on the list. The building’s significance did little to deter the building’s new owner, the Bank of France, from announcing its intention to dismantle the structure to enable the institution to expand its own headquarters. To make its plans more palatable, the bank agreed to remove the interiors, which, following the demolition in 1923, it stored in a suburban warehouse. So our princess was put to sleep by the wicked fairy, and remained in that state for almost 100 years.
Enter stage left our handsome prince, in the form of Bertrand du Vignaud, a leading art historian, lawyer and fundraiser for historic projects as well as a director of Christie’s in Monte Carlo and Paris. In 1979 he learned of the existence of the room decorations in the catalogue of an exhibition on the work of De Wailly. ‘I read that in 120 crates lay the remains of the fabulous 18th-century house,’ he says. ‘This discovery led to a personal mission. I began to search the archives and rather quickly I realised it was then a secret.’
For Bertrand, that dream developed into a passion, and he took up arms to battle through the forest of obstacles he encountered in his quest to reconstruct the interiors. His travails would require 40 years, roughly 2,000 meetings, 15 ministers of culture and four governors of the Bank of France. There was no easy path through the bogs and brambles of bureaucracy and fundraising but he was resolute.
In 1982, Bertrand’s research took him to the Wallace Collection in London to see its magnificent column-and-vase designed by De Wailly, sculpted by Pajou, which was recorded as one of two originally at the Chancellerie. Meanwhile, at the RIBA Library, a collection of watercolours and drawings by the Swedish/Scottish architect William Chambers, who had visited the place in the 1770s, proved essential for the project ahead.
Bertrand commissioned Paul Barnoud, the chief architect of France’s historic monuments, to create a model of the original suite of rooms based on photographs from the 1920s to ensure that the approach was historically accurate.
In storage, buried in straw, dust and newspapers from the time of the 1923 demolition, he found the remains of the interiors. Barnoud ordered an inventory to be compiled, and embarked on finding a suitable home where the rooms could be reconstructed. The HQ of the National Archives of France, the former Hôtel de Rohan, had spaces of a suitable size and with adequate light. Offices in the building had been moved to new premises in 2005 and the original 18th-century decoration on the ground floor was no more.
Now for the fog of finance. Bertrand obtained grants from the World Monuments Fund, while further investment was secured from two private foundations in the USA. An additional package of 20 million euros was put together, some of it from the Bank of France, which now was obliged to fulfil its 1923 promise to recreate the Chancellerie’s décors. As the building is state-owned, France’s ministry of culture also supported the work.
The crates were opened in 1999, but the whole unpacking process took two years. All 1,000-plus pieces of the architectural jigsaw puzzle were laid out in the Montreuil warehouse. ‘It was indescribable,’ commented Bertrand. It was discovered that the unique boiseries from the salon were too high for the rooms in the new building, so in 2014 heritage authorities granted permission for the floor of the entire enfilade to be lowered by nearly a metre. By 2017 the puzzle was ready to be pieced together, and the interior’s revival began in earnest. On board, under the direction of Barnoud, came an army of over 60 artisans, conservators, painters, plasterers, gilders, stoneworkers and structural engineers tasked with making steel frames to support fragile ceilings, and an installation lift. The finished restoration was finally unveiled to the public in 2021. But the quest did not end there. ‘It is my hope that once the interiors become better known, more of the original furniture will emerge,’ says Bertrand.
Not only was the Chancellerie the most extraordinary private home from the era of pre-Revolutionary grandeur, it was the birthplace of Neoclassicism in France. Moreover, it stands today as a testament to one man’s 40 years of persistence.
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A version of this article also appeared in the February 2025 issue of ‘The World of Interiors’. Learn about our subscription offers. Sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter, and be the first to receive exclusive stories like this one, direct to your inbox
