The Salon Doré from the Hôtel de La Trémoille
By Martin Chapman, Alexandre Pradère, Xavier Bonnet, Lesley Bone, and Maria Santangelo
The Salon Doré from the Hôtel de La Trémoille is one of the most cherished spaces in the Legion of Honor. This book explores the Salon’s origins in late-18th-century Paris, chronicles its history in France and the United States from the end of the 1700s to the early 2000s, and celebrates its reinstallation in San Francisco today. Based on new research, the present restoration accurately reflects a salon de compagnie from the 1780s, complete with two suites of chairs, lighting from historic fixtures, and silk upholstery derived from period documents—offering a rare glimpse of the halcyon days of its creation. Including a detailed account of salon life in the ancien régime, the original 1790 inventory, and an examination of the extensive conservation project undertaken to restore it to its former glory, The Salon Doré from the Hôtel de La Trémoille pays tribute to this superlative period room.
Authors
Martin Chapman is curator in charge of European decorative arts and sculpture at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He is the author of Cartier and America and coauthor of Royal Treasuries from the Louvre: Louis XIV to Marie-Antoinette.
Alexandre Pradère is an art historian and an expert on French furniture. His publications include French Furniture Makers: The Art of the Ébéniste from Louis XIV to the Revolution, a monograph on Charles Cressent, and numerous articles on such subjects as collectors, Parisian and country houses, and the successors of André-Charles Boulle the Elder.
Xavier Bonnet is an art historian and an expert on historic upholstery techniques and textile decoration. He was a fellow at the Académie de France in Rome in 2010–2011, and was awarded grants from the Getty Research Institute and the Winterthur Museum in 2006 and 2012, respectively.
Lesley Bone is head objects conservator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. She has worked on many restoration treatments at the Museums, including artworks from the Saxe, Friede, and Scheller collections, and she oversaw the conservation of the Salon Doré at the Legion of Honor.
Maria Santangelo is associate curator of European decorative arts and sculpture at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Since joining the department in 2007, she has managed the reinstallation of the Porcelain Gallery at the Legion of Honor and has assisted Chapman with numerous publications and exhibitions.
