Château de Malmaison, Empire style château and art museum in Rueil-Malmaison, France.
Château de Malmaison is an art museum and historic residence in Rueil-Malmaison, France, displaying furniture, paintings, and personal objects from the early 19th century. The grounds surround the building with lawns, paths, and a pond where swans swim.
Joséphine bought the run-down estate in April 1799 for well over 300,000 francs while Napoleon was in Egypt; he paid off the debt at the end of that year. In 1799 the architects Percier and Fontaine were hired to fit out the interiors, and Napoleon held ministerial meetings in his study from 1802. After the 1809 divorce Joséphine owned Malmaison outright until her death in 1814; Napoleon stayed here again in 1815 before exile.
The name derives from the 6th-century Latin mala mansio, "bad house", first recorded as a royal villa of a son of Clovis I. Joséphine's daughter Hortense called the estate "a delicious spot". The dining room, remodelled by Fontaine in 1800, has white and black marble floor tiles and painted Pompeian dancers by Louis Lafitte after sketches by Percier.
The entrance is near a parking area, and most ground floor rooms are accessible for wheelchairs. The grounds work well for a quiet stroll in the mornings, when fewer groups are on site.
Napoleon's study at Malmaison, finished in 1802, was modelled on a Roman military tent, with spears and shields painted on the walls and door panels showing trophies of Carthaginian, Roman, Greek and other arms. He held ministerial meetings in this room. A twelve-branch gilt-bronze and crystal chandelier hangs above the council table.
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