Interior view

Private architecture during the Empire, likewise public buildings, employed also the classicising rhetoric of Roman Imperial buildings, if on a reduced scale. The top category was represented by the H�tel de Beauharnais in Paris. This private mansion was built by Germain Boffrand in 1714 and bought by Eug�ne de Beauharnais in 1803. Renovated by Bataille, a neo-Egyptian portico was added on by Jean Augustin Renard to the front overlooking the yard in 1807 while the interior was lavishly decorated.

In the interior most of the rooms follow the prevailing classicising style with its rich variety of forms. The walls of the splendid drawing room, the Four Seasons Room, which is decked out in white, gray and gold, are furnished with full-height allegorical representations of the Four Seasons. The paintings of the four seasons were formerly attributed to Pierre-Paul Prud’hon and now to Anne-Louis Girodet, who painted works on the same theme for the Platinum Study in the Casa del Labrador in Aranjuez, Spain. The overdoors are decorated with Pompeian scenes.

The photo shows the Four Seasons Room.