Le Petit Salon: The Journey of an Eighteenth-century Room from Paris to Middlebury

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This exhibit unveils a set of wooden carved panels from an 18th century Parisian interior, once displayed in Le Château, that have since been stored in the collections of the Middlebury College Museum of Art.

view of le Petit Salon as it was installed in Le Chateau on the Middlebury College campus
Pierre Adrien Pâris (French, 1745–1819), Boiseries [Paneling], Private Dining Room from the Hôtel d’Aumont / Crillon, Paris, 1776–77, paint on white oak, poplar, and birch. Collection of Middlebury College Museum of Art, Vermont. Gift of Susan Dwight Bliss in 1959, 0.115.

Originally crafted for the Petit Salon of Paris’ Hôtel d’Aumont-Crillon, these panels, in conversation with drawings left by the room’s architect, Pierre-Adrien Pâris, and other artifacts significant to their history, paint a narrative of collecting, taste, and craftsmanship. Le Petit Salon speaks to the rich history of French design, ultimately illuminating the value in circulating objects, motifs, and stories.