The Pendule au Télégraphe [the Telegraph Clock] returns to the Palais Rohan (February 2020)

The long-term loan of the Pendule au Télégraphe [Telegraph Clock], a national treasure, to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Strasbourg by the Mobilier National, will complete and enrich the historical layout of Napoleon I’s room and brilliantly evoke the imperial status of the Palais Rohan during the First Empire.

The Palais Rohan de Strasbourg was the masterpiece of the architect Robert de Cotte. It was commissioned in 1727 by Cardinal Armand Gaston de Rohan-Soubise, and became the imperial palace by the order of a decree issued on 21 June, 1806. In 1805 the Imperial House began the refurbishment of the ex-episcopal palace, under the supervision of the Commissioner General Pierre Daru and the architect Pierre Fontaine. This was when it began serving as the holiday residence of the Imperial Family. The ground floor of the palace was used by the Emperor, and the first floor was for the Empress and her entourage. Only two rooms were decorated with coordinated contemporary furnishings, designed by ébéniste Jacob-Desmalter: the Emperor’s bedroom (refurnished in 1806), and the Empress’s salon on the first floor (refurnished in 1809). Although Josephine’s apartments disappeared during the installation of the Musée des Beaux-Arts around 1880, Napoleon’s bedroom was preserved intact, complete with its woodwork and 18th century fireplace. It remains exactly as the Emperor would have known it. The shipment of the furniture for the Emperor’s bedroom was completed in 1807 with a specially commissioned  clock made by Jean-André Lepaute, ‘Horloger to H.M. the Emperor in Paris’, to adorn the mantlepiece in the same room.

In 1992, the surviving pieces of furniture from the two consignments of Jacob-Desmalter were installed together in this room, which was dominated by the bed and its canopy, perfectly-sized for the niche which had served as the prince-bishop’s study during the Ancien Régime. Restored and refurbished with silk woven by the Maison Tassinari, based on the original fabric (a sample of which is kept at the Mobilier National), this ensemble evokes the residence’s prestigious past under the Empire, as well as the decorative arts from the time of the Empire in their truest form.

The return of this magnificent “pendule au télégraphe”, made from marble and bronze in the shape of a portico, perfectly complements the historic furnishings of the room, and restores the clock to the place for which Lepaute had imagined it. From his bedroom windows, the Emperor could see the Chappe telegraph that sat on top of the transept of the cathedral facing the palace. This telegraph station was constructed in 1798 as the first station on the Strasbourg-Metz-Paris line, which carried the news of the victories of the Grande Armée to the capital. The theme and ornamentation of the clock allude to the almost daily written correspondence that Napoleon maintained with Josephine, which the oceans themselves had not the power to interrupt (represented by the bronze plaque on the pedestal). This is the same Josephine whom Napoleon reproached for the lack of assiduity in her correspondence!

The telegraph features a bow and arrow, representing love. We can see Cupid operating the telegraph next to a putto representing Mercury, the god of travellers. The portico is inspired by the triumphal arch on the banks of the Rhine at the entrance to the city of Strasbourg, which had been erected to welcome the victorious Emperor upon his return from Austerlitz, accompanied by the Empress. The swans sitting on either side of the top of the portico symbolise Josephine.

With the collaboration of the Mobilier National and the factories of Gobelins, Beauvais and Savonnerie.

Click here for the website (in English) for the Museum of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg.

Musée des Arts décoratifs
Palais Rohan
2 place du Château, Strasbourg
Ouvert tous les jours de 10h à 18h – sauf le mardi
Tél. +33 (0)3 68 98 50 00
www.musees.strasbourg.eu

Published : 28 February 2020