Printemps A Bois-Preau
by Iryna Goodall
Title
Printemps A Bois-Preau
Artist
Iryna Goodall
Medium
Photograph
Description
A true English garden ornamented with water features - Bois-Préau park in Rueil-Malmaison, France.
The daughter of the banker Louis Julien, who had owned Bois-Préau residence and park, persistently refused to sell it to Napoleon Bonaparte, in spite of the attractive offers he made. It was not until the spinster’s accidental death by drowning in one of the park’s water features that Joséphine was finally able to extend her estate towards the village of Rueil.
By having the walls separating Malmaison from Bois-Préau demolished, it was possible to go to Rueil without setting foot outside the property. Josephine housed several of her staff here, such as her doctor and her intendant, and made use of the space to store the overflow from the library at Malmaison (7 500 volumes), fitting out a room for the estate’s archives and storing part of her natural history collection.
After the death of Josephine, several owners succeeded her one after another. The Americans Mr and Mrs Tuck, great benefactors of the city, purchased Bois-Préau in 1920 and donated it and its seventeen-hectare park to the French national museum association in 1926 to create an annex to Malmaison museum.
Uploaded
April 30th, 2021
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