The Hôtel de St. Florentin, on the corner of the Rue de Rivoli and the Rue St. Florentin, was built to plans by the celebrated 18th Century architect Gabriel in 1767, and having been occupied successively by intimates of the French court, and having been briefly the Venetian Embassy, it was acquired by Prince Talleyrand as his Paris residence. With the fall of Napoleon in 1814, the triumphant Emperor Alexander I of Russia installed himself in Talleyrand's vast house, now known as the Hôtel de Talleyrand, before removing to his official residence at the Elysée Palace. At Talleyrand's death in May 1838, the house was bequeathed to his niece, the Duchess of Dino, who sold it immediately to Baron James de Rothschild. After inheriting her family property at Sagan in Silesia in 1839, the Duchess devoted all her attention to its restoration and decoration. Two albums of watercolours. bearing the arms of Talleyrand, and recording the rooms and grounds of the castle of Sagan, were dispersed at auction in 1989. This much more ambitious project was executed in the 1850s, but the level of professional competence is similar to the present drawing.

The Hôtel de Talleyrand was occupied by members of the Rothschild family up until the death of Baron Alphonse in 1905. The apartments formerly occupied by Talleyrand were rented from 1846 to 1857 by Princess Lieven who established a notable diplomatic salon there.