Maison dite Hôtel d'Aumont
MonumentHidden Treasure
Maison dite Hôtel d'Aumont, located in Josselin (Département 56), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Josselin, Département 56, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.9557, -2.5482
- Mérimée Reference
- PA56000062
A discreet jewel of 18th-century Josselin, the Hôtel d'Aumont contains paintings on Chinese silk that are unique in Brittany, and carved panelling of rare delicacy.
History
In the heart of Josselin, a small medieval town in Morbihan dominated by the famous Château des Rohan, the Hôtel d'Aumont is one of the finest examples of the French art of living during the Age of Enlightenment. Unobtrusive from the street, this L-shaped town house reveals a singularly rich interior, preserved in almost its entirety since it was built in the 1760s. What really sets the Hôtel d'Aumont apart from the bourgeois residences of its generation is the coexistence under the same roof of two aesthetics that would seem to oppose each other: the rocaille elegance of Brittany, embodied by its scrolled panelling and mantelpieces with carved wooden shelves, and the refined orientalism of seven paintings on silk made in China, adorning a bedroom and its adjoining study on the first floor. These works testify to the fascination that the Far East held for the provincial elites of the 18th century, at the time of the Compagnie des Indes, of which the nearby port of Lorient was the beating heart. On the ground floor, the decorative programme is remarkably coherent: the marouflaged canvases adorning the door tops depict idyllic rural scenes, in the pastoral vein so prized by the patrons of the period. Together, they form a pictorial and ornamental narrative that tells us as much about the aesthetic tastes of the Breton bourgeoisie as it does about the commercial and cultural circuits that fed the province. To visit the Hôtel d'Aumont is to enter a suspended space in time, where the original layout of the rooms - preserved almost identically since the 18th century - provides a concrete understanding of how a wealthy provincial family organised its daily life and represented its social standing. Far from museum-style reconstructions, the atmosphere here remains intimate and authentic, conducive to attentive contemplation of the details that make this private mansion so valuable.
Architecture
The Hôtel d'Aumont has an L-shaped floor plan typical of 18th-century provincial town houses, providing a well-established functional and social logic for the articulation of representative spaces and more private or utilitarian areas. The exterior elevation, sober and balanced, reflects the Breton provincial classicism of the second half of the century of Louis XV: regularly punctuated openings, a façade of local ashlar and a slate roof - the king of Breton roofing materials - make up a discreet but well-proportioned building. It is inside that the true architectural and decorative ambition of the residence is revealed. The ground floor is adorned with curved panelling with soft, sinuous cuts, typical of the Rococo style in vogue at the time, as well as beautifully crafted fireplaces with carved wooden shelves. The door tops feature marouflaged canvases depicting rural scenes, an elegant decorative technique that integrates painting with architecture and creates a visual continuity between carpentry and painting. The first floor is the building's decorative pièce de résistance: a bedroom and its adjoining study house seven paintings on silk of Chinese origin, integrated into the wall decor. These works, probably set in specially designed panelling, illustrate the chinoiserie fashion that swept across Europe in the 18th century. This ensemble forms a cabinet of oriental inspiration of remarkable coherence and rarity, with no known equivalent in the civil heritage of rural Brittany.
Related Figures
Famille d'Aumont — probable commanditaire de l'hôtel particulier dans les années 1760Artisans menuisiers bretons — auteurs des lambris chantournés et des cheminées sculptéesArtistes chinois anonymes — peintres des sept œuvres sur soie du premier étageNégociants de la Compagnie des Indes orientales (port de Lorient) — intermédiaires probables pour l'acquisition des soies chinoises
Tags
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Maison dite Hôtel d'Aumont located?
Maison dite Hôtel d'Aumont is located in Josselin, Département 56 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Maison dite Hôtel d'Aumont built?
Maison dite Hôtel d'Aumont dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Maison dite Hôtel d'Aumont open to visitors?
Maison dite Hôtel d'Aumont is currently closed to visitors.