A Parisian Home

23 Août 2014

The "Aha!" moment came when I was walking around the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Paris last Sunday. It suddenly made sense. Connections were made in my head, names read in haste, a family story told in a book, a walk in a foreign city.......

Let me start by quoting a passage from Edmund de Waal's book "The Hare with Amber Eyes" which I read about 3 years ago, and which I found on my the bookshelves as soon as I was back in Marseille:

"The area was developed in the 1860s by Isaac and Emile Péreire, two Sephardic brothers who had made their fortunes as financiers, railroad-builders and property magnates, creating colossal developments of hotels and department stores. They acquired the plaine de Monceau, a large nondescript area that was originally beyond the city limits, and set to work developing houses for the burgeoning financial and commercial elite, an appropriate landscape for the newly arrived Jewish families from Russia and the Levant. These streets became a virtual colony, a complex of inter-marriage, obligation and religious sympathy."

Last Sunday afternoon I was sitting in posh Parc Monceau after having explored the neighbouring Batignolles area and decided to go to the nearby Mucée Nissim de Camondo, which I imagined to be the exotic home of a Brazilian explorer. Oh, I was so wrong, but the surprise was still good. Edmund de Waal's forefather was Charles Ephrussi who lived in 81 rue de Monceau. Down the street in number 61 lived Abraham de Camondo whose brother Nissim lived next door in number 63.

They all came from immensely rich, Jewish banking families. Whereas Charles was born in 1849 in Odessa, Abraham and Nissim were born in 1829-1830 in Constantinople. The families have left traces in their home towns, especially the Camondos as I found out from searching websites about Istanbul: the Camondo stairs, the Camondo Palace, the Camondo Bank....... In 2010 I was walking around in the Galata area in Istanbul without knowing that I was walking in the footsteps of the Camondo family!

When Nissim died in 1889 his son Moise stayed in the house, but decided to tear in down and build a house according to his taste and in particular according to his collection of furniture and art objects from the second empire. The house was finished in 1914, the same year that WW1 broke out and his only son Nissim went off to war as a pilot. Nissim never came back from the war, and in his memory Moise donated the house to the Arts Décoratifs at his own death in 1935. Nothing was to be changed, so this is the house that is a museum today.

Abraham's son Isaac collected, among others, paintings by the impressionists, which he donated to the Louvres at his death. Today many of the paintings can be seen at the Musée d'Orsay with the name of Isaac de Camondo on the explanatory sign. Thanks to Isaac Monet's cathedrals are not in a private collection but fully accessible to all of us.

Moise collected, as I mentioned before, furniture from the second empire (which means the second half of the 18th century when Napoleon III was the emperor - this third Napoleon was the grandchild of Josephine, by the way). I cannot begin to imagine how much money he must have spent on his collection, but I can appreciate what was really unique about 63 rue de Monceau. It was en entirely modern house with all conveniences, but purposefully built for an ever expanding collection of furniture, wooden panels, paintings and carpets.

One might or might not appreciate the collection, but I am absolutely sure that nobody will go untouched by the bathrooms, the lift, the food lift, the oven to heat food next to the dining room, and especially the servants' area. This is the world of "Upstairs and Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey". The curator knows that the attraction of the museum lies in the rooms that one never sees in museums and castles and will apparently continue to develop that part of the museum. The kitchen is amazing with its rotating grill, its pots and pans, its cooker, well, judge for yourself. I took some photos for you.

There are no members of the Camondo family left. Moise's daughter Beatrice and her children were gassed in Auswitz in 1943-44. However, the art collections of Isaac and Moise de Camondo live on.

The Uncivil Servant: In Istanbul and Paris, Traces of the Camondos - Jewish Currents

by Mitchell Abidor In Istanbul, as you descend from Beyoğlu through the streets of formerly Genoese and Jewish Galata, just before you leave the winding streets and come out onto Karaköy Square and

http://jewishcurrents.org/in-istanbul-and-paris-traces-of-the-camondos-16905

Nissim de Camondo - Les Arts Décoratifs - Site officiel

Musée Nissim de Camondo © Les Arts Décoratifs / Jean-Marie del Moral One of the most sumptuous private homes from the early twentieth century in Paris Moïse de Camondo, a reputed Parisian banke...

http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/english-439/nissim-de-camondo-742/

Go to the French website to get all the details