IN PICTURES

Date: 1800

Dimensions : H. 6.2 m; W. 12.8 m

Place:Rueil-Malmaison, Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison et
de Bois-Préau

Subjects: Consulate, Decorative arts, Malmaison (château of)

Key words: furnishings, furniture, desk, woodwork, armchairs, books, Percier, Fontaine, Jacob, Lafitte

Credits: RMN

Notes:

On 9 July 1800, Bonaparte gave the commission for a study to be built in place of the three small rooms situated on the southr corner pavilion. Fontaine removed the partition walls and commissioned the Jacob brothers to make the teak woodwork. On 18 September, Fontaine wrote: "Everything is now in place, and even though the First Consul found that the room looked like a church sacristy, he was nevertheless forced to admit that it would have been difficult to do better in such an unsuitable space".
The painter of the great ancient and classical authors which surround Apollo and Minerva on the ceiling were probably executed by
Lafitte. Hardly touched by restoration, the library at Malmaison is almost exactly as it was when it was first built. In 1814, it held nearly 13,000 books.