Hôtel De Monsieur Le Duc De Villeroy, Paris Rue De Varenne, Three Framed Drawings 1768

Hotel of the Duke of Villeroy. Three drawings (framed). (1768). a) “Elevation of the face on the side of the courtyard of the mansion of Monsieur le Duc de Villeroÿ On the designs of Monsieur Aubry in the year 1768”. Chinese ink and black ink wash. 45 x 33 cm at sight. On the pediment, bouquets of weapons, spears, helmets and shields decorated with masks. b) “Elevation of the face on the side of the garden of the mansion of Monsieur le Duc de Villeroy Rüe de Varesnnes Projected on the old Plans in 1768”. India ink and black and brown ink wash. 29 x 23 cm at sight. Bottom right: “Echesle, Bonne [?] for design B”. Scale of 6 fathoms. c) "Section and profile taken across the width of the Building of the Hôtel de Monsieur le Duc de Villeroÿ Rüe de Varennes Planned on the old Plans in 1768". Chinese ink and black, pink, blue and brown ink wash. 54 x 42 cm at sight. Section of the building. Bottom right: “Made by jean Bte Vaudey”. Scale of 10 fathoms. This is the Hôtel de Villeroy located rue de Varenne (Paris, VIIth ardt.). This hotel was built between 1720 and 1724 by François Debias-Aubry, at the request of Antoine Hogguer, Baron de Presles and adviser to the Royal Council of Commerce of Sweden, to house his mistress, the actress Charlotte Desmares. Hogguer in bankruptcy, the hotel was rented several times before being sold in 1735 to the Duke of Villeroy, who had it enlarged and embellished in 1746 by Le Roux, a pupil of Dorbay. On the Duke's death in 1766, his nephew Gabriel-Louis took his titles and his mansion, which he sold in 1768 (date of our drawings), after having received the great world there and built a small theatre. “The buyer was on behalf of the king, the Count of Tessé, first squire to Queen Marie Leczynska, who thought of installing the stables there, which until then had been housed at the current location of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The death of the queen [the same year] stopped this project and the Comte de Tessé lived, in usufruct, in the Hôtel de Villeroi, which had become royal property (until his emigration in 1790). During the Revolution, the hotel was confiscated and the furniture of the Comte de Tessé was sold (1794). The Directory installed in this hotel, in 1796, the General Inspectorate of the Military Health Service and, in its outbuildings, the Office of Laws and Archives. Having returned from emigration, the Comte de Tessé regained, in 1800-1802, the usufruct of the Hôtel de Villeroi which its state of disrepair caused him to leave in 1805.” (Hillairet, t. 2, pp. 599-600 ). The Hôtel de Villeroy then received various functions, notably ministerial. It now houses, with the large building built in front of it at the end of the 19th century, the Ministry of Agriculture.