CIRCA 1750

The Pavillon Colombe was designed by the architect Joseph Bélanger (1751-1830) for André Vassal from 1769. It was built as a 'folie' for his mistress Madamoiselle Marie-Catherine Rombocoli Riggieri, called Marie-Catherine Colombe (1751-1830), a celebrated actress in the Comedi italienne. Sparing no expense on its sumptuous interiors, he commissioned the greatest artists of the period to embellish the interior, whilst Fragonard painted portraits of Marie-Catherine and her two sisters. The pavillion was restored after the Great War by the American romancaire Edith Wharton (1862-1937) who abandoned her fashionable Paris apartment and purchased the property in 1919. Edith affectionally described the pavillion as 'my little chteaulet' and legendarily redecorated it in the most fashionable taste of the day. The property subsequently passed to the duc and duchesse de Talleyrand who remodeled the interior closer to the original. During this period the Pavillion and its interiors were illustrated in Cyril Connolly & Jerome Zerbe, Les Pavillons, New York, 1962, p.62-67.