Salon Doré of the Hôtel de la Trémoille (detail). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Richard S. Rheem. 1959.123
The Salon Doré of the Hôtel de la Trémoille is one of the finest examples of French neoclassical interior architecture anywhere. Richly carved and gilded, it was designed during the reign of Louis XVI as the main salon de compagnie of the Hôtel de la Trémoille on the Rue Saint-Dominique in Paris. Its architecture, with giant gilded Corinthian pilasters framing four arched mirrors and complemented by four massive doors, was intended to invoke the grandeur of ancient Rome.
Regrettably, a winding history of relocation and reconfiguration has left this great room wanting. Moved no less than six times between 1877 and 1995, its architectural and aesthetic integrity have been greatly compromised. This year, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will close the Salon Doré and the adjacent British art gallery to embark on a comprehensive conservation project of the period room.
Over the course of the project the Fine Arts Museums will reinstate the room's original floor plan, restore the gilding and paint, install a parquet floor, proper ceiling, windows, and a new lighting scheme. The Museums will also restore the Salon Doré's character and purpose by reintroducing furnishings of the period, which will demonstrate the room's social function as a salon de compagnie, or a room for receiving guests.
As the conservators and curators undertake this detailed work, their efforts will be on display in a special viewing gallery. Gallery 13 (formerly the British art gallery) will be transformed into an open conservation workshop where you, the visitor, will be able to watch the conservation in action. In addition to the live conservation, extensive multimedia documentation will grant unprecedented access to conservation treatments, interviews with subject experts, and occasional live-streaming of the activities taking place inside the open conservation workshop. Frequent blog posts will take readers behind-the-scenes of the refurbishment of this important architectural masterpiece.
The Museums’ ultimate goal is for the room to appear as it did in the 18th century. More than that, the goal is for the Salon Doré at the Legion of Honor to be a truly groundbreaking museum display, one that will set the high standard for such rooms at other museums throughout the country.
A Timeline of the Salon Doré
Original Location: Hôtel de la Trémoille, Paris
Originally installed in the hôtel de la Trémoille, rue Saint-Dominique (formerly the hôtels de Neuchatel, de Bethune and de Chatillon) in 1781. It was designed for Jean-Bretagne-Godfroy, duc de la Trémoille et de Thouars (1737–1792) and his second wife, Marie-Maximilienne, princesse de Salm-Kirbourg, whose family lived in the hôtel de Salm (now the Palais de la Légion d’Honneur), which was the model for the Legion of Honor museum. The Salon Doré architect was likely Pierre-Auguste Delapoize.
Hôtel de la Trémoille demolished
This hotel was one of the many victims of Haussmann’s famous urban remodeling of Paris. The owner, the Marquise de Croix, was forced to give up this mansion for the construction of the Boulevard Saint-Germain.
Hôtel d’Humières rue de Lille
After the demolition of the hôtel de la Trémoille, the Marquise de Croix bought the hôtel d’Humières. She took some of the Trémoille paneling with her to her new home and the boiserie of the Salon Doré was installed on the first floor. Some of the old paneling from the hôtel d’Humières was sold to Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild for his new house, Waddesdon Manor in England. In 1905 the hôtel d’Humières was demolished to make way for several apartment buildings. This caused a public outcry resulting in the establishment of the Société d'Histoire et d'Archéologie du 7me Arrondissement de Paris. The salon was extensively photographed before demolition.
Otto Kahn Mansion, 1 East 91st Street, New York.
The boiserie was installed as the “French salon” in Kahn’s massive new mansion, with some of the room's original elements moved around. The narrow panels on the chimneypiece wall were moved to the corners, and the large mirror in the back wall was replaced by a set of double doors.
Duveen Brothers, 720 Fifth Avenue, New York
After Kahn’s death, his widow sold the room to the Duveen Brothers. It was installed as one of the main showrooms in Duveen Brothers in New York by the decorating firm of Alavoine. Photographs of 1946–7 show how the room was stretched from 30 feet to 43 feet in one dimension and from 30 feet to 23 feet in the other, with the showcases sunk into the walls.
Richard Rheem, La Dolphine, Burlingame
The Salon Doré was sold to Mr. Rheem by Edward Fowles of Duveen, who claimed the room was from the more famous hôtel de Crillon, and designed by the equally famous architect, Jacques-Ange Gabriel. This was an invented provenance. It was installed in the Rheem's home, La Dolphine, by the Parisian decorating firm of Decour.
Legion of Honor, San Francisco
The Salon Doré was accepted as a gift from Mr. Rheem in 1959 on the advice of the architectural historian John Harris. Professor Winfield Wellington researched the room and rediscovered its earlier provenance in the hôtel d’Humières and advised on its installation. Built to Professor Wellington’s specifications in Gallery 7 of the Legion of Honor, the room included windows and doors, parquet floor and ceiling. It was restored to what were then believed to be its original dimensions of 30 x 30 feet.
Legion of Honor retrofit
In 1990, the Salon Doré in Gallery 7 was deinstalled as part of the comprehensive building retrofit undertaken during the early 1990s.
Salon Doré re-installed at the Legion of Honor
When the Legion of Honor reopened in 1995, the Salon Doré was installed in Gallery 11 and was shown as a “paneled environment,” without its parquet flooring, ceiling, windows nor two pairs of doors.
Architectural rendering by Andrew Skurman
Gallery 11 will be closed as comprehensive conservation and restoration of the Salon Doré's main elements takes place in the adjacent Gallery 13. Conservators and technicians will conduct this work in full view of the public. This preliminary architectural rendering by Andrew Skurman illustrates the proposed east wall of the Salon Doré.
