This view is nearly contemporary with the series recording rooms in the Princesse Mathilde's Paris house in her chateau in the country by Eugène and Charles Giraud. The emphasis on informal furniture groupings is similar and the lavish use of draping and buttoning for curtains and upholstery follows the taste of the Second Empire court. The works of art show a collector of Oriental porcelain and a taste for sculpture; the little sculpture of a seated figure on the windowsill may be of the Countess herself.
The resemblance to the Second Empire Imperial taste is probably no coincidence. The Daru family were prominent during the First Empire: as a member of Napoleon Bonaparte's administration Daru was responsible for the organisation of David's great painting of the Emperor's Coronation, and Mme Daru (Alexandrine, niece of the writer Stendhal) was herself painted by David (Frick Collection, New York). Their son Count Napoleon Daru, the Emperor's godson, held office under Napoleon III, and was with the group who tried to persuade the Empress Eugènie to abdicate after the fall of the Emperor