The Marais is full of mansions, and each one could tell you no shortage of juicy stories (take Hôtel de Rohan-Soubise or Hôtel de Sully, for example). Hôtel Salé, which we’ll talk about today, is no different, but unlike other mansions, aside from the Carnavalet, its present is just as interesting as its past.
The History of Hôtel Salé
Where the mansion now stands there once stood a tennis court, and later the Marais theater, where Corneille staged his play Le Cid, which made the neighbors complain that the throngs of carriages belonging to the audience caused massive traffic jams. Hôtel Salé was built by Aubert de Fontenay (1584-1668), tax collector for Louis XIII (r. 1610-1643) and Louis XIV, who made his fortune collecting the salt tax. The mansion’s name is a pun: Salé means “salty,” a nod to the source of the money behind it, but it can also be read as “pricey,” given the considerable sum poured into it.
Aubert, who was the archetype of the nouveau riche (he started his career as a servant), decided to dazzle his neighbors. The ornate facade, the staircase decorated with Corinthian columns, the stone medallions and the eagle statues, all of these were created to impress his guests and display his wealth. Since he owed his rise up the social ladder to his wealthy wife, he immortalized her memory in the iron railings, where you can find the letters A in honor of his own name (Aubert) and C in honor of his wife’s name (Mademoiselle de Chastelin). It’s worth noting that his wealthy wife not only helped him climb French society but also cheated on him, carrying on stormy affairs with no shortage of the men of Paris of her time.
Aubert de Fontenay couldn’t hold onto his wealth for long. Like many others, he lost everything with the fall of Nicolas Fouquet, the finance minister of Louis XIV. And so, like Moses, who never made it to the Promised Land, Aubert died before the mansion was even completed. By the way, other nouveaux riches, or as the French called them, parvenus (those who’ve “newly arrived”), fared much better than that unfortunate tax collector, and made their way into French folklore thanks to the plays of Molière (himself an aristocrat) or the sharp remark of La Bruyère: “Some people go to bed as commoners and wake up as nobles.” Some of the nouveaux riches even managed to marry into France‘s old noble families, who needed the money, and in doing so upgraded their social status. Madame de Sévigné, whose own grandmother was the daughter of a tax collector, said of this: “Every now and then, the soil needs manure.”
Hôtel Salé Becomes the Picasso Museum
But let’s get back to the mansion. After Aubert de Fontenay’s fall, it became home to the Venetian embassy. About a century later, the mansion was bought by the Archbishop of Paris, who decided the statues in the courtyard weren’t modest enough and ordered their intimate parts covered. The mansion was badly damaged during the French Revolution and nearly faced demolition. It was saved, like many mansions in the Marais, thanks to a law passed by French Minister of Culture André Malraux (1901-1976), who ordered the mansion restored. In 1973, after Picasso’s death, his heirs were “persuaded” to donate a large portion of his works to the City of Paris in order to avoid an enormous inheritance tax they could not have paid. This collection of about 5,000 pieces became the core of the museum, and over the years another 1,000 pieces purchased by the museum were added to it.
After roughly thirty years in operation, the museum closed for renovations, which were marked by a scandal that led to the dismissal of the museum’s director and cost French taxpayers about 52 million euros. The museum reopened in September 2014, and you can find works there by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Rousseau, Braque, and of course, Picasso. Even if you’re not a fan of modern painting, it’s still worth visiting just to take in the beauty of the mansion, especially if you’ve bought the Paris Museum Pass, which makes admission free.
Picasso Museum Information
Address: 5 Rue de Thorigny
Metro: Saint-Sébastien-Froissart, Filles du Calvaire
Admission: Paid
Links: Buy tickets | Museum website
Opening days and hours: From Tuesday to Friday the museum is open from 10:30 to 18:00, and on Saturday and Sunday it’s open from 9:30 to 18:00. Closed on Mondays.
Want to Get to Know Picasso’s Paris?
Why not try the walking route in his footsteps, most of which takes place in the Montmartre neighborhood.
