Spotlight: Salon Doré
Photo Credit: Henrik Kam
Photo Credit: Henrik Kam
Photo courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Photo courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Photo Credit: Henrik Kam
Photo courtesy of Société d’Histoire du VIIème arrondissement
Photo courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
Illustration by the author/ Photo courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
In this era of mobile phones, Skype, and video conferences, the notion of a salon de compagnie—a formal room for receiving guests where everyone can engage in conversation—may seem quaint. But the idea of a sanctioned space designed and decorated to facilitate such things also seems like a genius invention that should be revived. The decor alone would elevate even the most mundane dialogues. During the reign of Louis XVI, the Hôtel de La Trémoille on the rue Saint-Dominique in Paris included such a room, called the Salon Doré, and on Wednesday, April 2, a renovated version of the original was unveiled at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. The 18-month restoration project was spearheaded by the European Decorative Arts Council and included Adolphus Andrews, Legion of Honor Curator of European Decorative Arts and Sculpture Martin Chapman, Parisian antique dealer Benjamin Steinitz, and architect Andrew Skurman.
Skurman approached Chapman about the project, and the two took a look at the hotel’s original floor plans. Skurman recalls their first conversation about the dimensions of the space. “Martin said, ‘Look, the room was square [at the hotel], and now it is a rectangle [at the museum]. The room also had French windows, and now it’s totally interior in the museum.’ I told him, ‘We will fix that.'” Skurman says he researched similar examples of such rooms in America and abroad. “I went to look at the Wrightsman rooms at the Met, and to the period rooms at the Getty, which are considered the top American models. And of course, each time I go to Paris, I visit one chateau or another, and always the Carnavalet Museum, a delightful collection of period rooms.” But Skurman notes that inspiration for this renovation came from the Legion’s curatorial staff who discovered the original dimensions of the room. They even managed to dig up an actual seating chart, and the furniture is now arranged according to that plan.
Skurman transformed the space back to its original shape and even found room to add an extra element. “As the Salon Doré went from rectangular to square, we had some extra space and needed to make it into a vestibule. I designed it as an octagon with a new oak chevron floor that highlights a very special commode and a monitor that describes the process of redoing the 18th-century room.” Skurman says that the spirit of the room’s first owners remains, and is joined by that of the workers, carpenters, gilders, and furniture makers of both the 18th-century and those who worked on the current renovation. “Such are the miracles of architecture and art,” Skurman says.
By Elizabeth Varnell and Diane Dorrans Saeks
Pictured: The renovated Salon Doré inside San Francisco’s Legion of Honor.
Photo by Henrik Kam
