{"id":17741,"date":"2021-09-28T16:54:49","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T14:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musee-balzac.fr\/decouvrir-le-musee\/lhistoire-du-musee\/"},"modified":"2022-01-21T11:39:44","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T09:39:44","slug":"history-of-the-museum","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.musee-balzac.fr\/en\/explore-the-museum\/history-of-the-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"The history of the Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Balzac's bedroom at Ch\u00e2teau de Sach\u00e9,<\/em> black and white photograph, first half of the 20th century, \u00a9 SAT (Touraine Archaeological Society).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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Museum Balzac in Sach\u00e9<\/div>\n
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The museum's foundation<\/h2>\n

Ch\u00e2teau de Sach\u00e9 became a museum devoted to Honor\u00e9 de Balzac in 1951. It was owned by Paul M\u00e9tadier (1872-1956) at the time. He bought it in 1926 to join the woodland estate of his Ch\u00e2teau de Valesne residence. The ch\u00e2teau had been left deserted and Paul M\u00e9tadier wanted to renovate the site where Honor\u00e9 de\u00a0Balzac stayed.<\/p>\n

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He had the ch\u00e2teau listed on the Monuments Historiques additional inventory on May 11th 1932. During the French Occupation (December 1942), he had the French administration list the site so it would be protected from the German troops' sporadic stays in the ch\u00e2teau. Paul M\u00e9tadier dreamt of opening a writer's residence here in the 1930s. But his son, Bernard-Paul (born in 1918), had a real passion for Balzac and suggested opening a museum devoted to the illustrious author.<\/p>\n

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In 1943, Paul M\u00e9tadier told a journalist that he agreed with the idea of a museum and summed up the concept: \"I want to restore this old residence to its former glory by making it into a museum. Yes, there are other Balzac museums, but Sach\u00e9 has the unique appeal of a romantic setting that has been untouched for a century. The house's old stones still hold the literary giant's spirit so, in terms of material, it won't take much to revive the magical atmosphere that countless locals already know Sach\u00e9 for.\"<\/p>\n

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When it was founded, the museum only had a few rooms including the reception rooms and Balzac's bedroom. The M\u00e9tadier family donated the ch\u00e2teau and the museum's first collections to Indre-et-Loire Council. Bernard-Paul M\u00e9tadier was made the museum curator between 1958 and 2001. Major building work began in 1964 until the 1970s to safeguard the building, provide public access and adapt the site to a museum layout.<\/p>\n

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Recent updates<\/h2>\n

The Balzac\u00a0Museum -\u00a0Ch\u00e2teau de Sach\u00e9 was given a new layout for the first floor reception rooms in April 2015. True to the museum founder's work, the site's bond with Balzac was brought to the fore. With the help of Jean-Jacques Gautier, inspector at the Mobilier National, and the fabulously talented Mobilier National tapestry studio, the new furniture collections now reflect the period when Charles X and Louis-Philippe\u00a0were on the throne, which is when Honor\u00e9 de Balzac was a regular guest in Sach\u00e9. They also tie into the novelist's literary work as the furniture in his books reveal his characters' social status, personality and background. The new layout conjures up the atmosphere of the Ch\u00e2teau de Clochegourde created by Balzac in\u00a0The Lily of the Valley<\/em>: backgammon table, tapestry frame, single-braided white percale curtains, chair cushions, Boulle-style cabinet, carved wood Louis XIV chairs, white porcelain vases with gold details and family silver capture the Mortsauf's wealth and the ensuing drama.<\/p>\n

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New permanent collection halls elevated the Balzac Museum - Ch\u00e2teau de Sach\u00e9 visitor experience in the second floor apartments from January 2017. Reminiscent of Mademoiselle de Verneuil's water closet lit by an ox-eye window in The Chouans<\/em>, a small bathroom was built in the room next to Balzac's bedroom. The understated furniture matches the bed and wing chair, assumed to be here when the novelist would stay here, and revive the atmosphere Balzac described in his letters: I am happy to be here, like a monk in a monastery<\/em>\u00a0(letter to Mrs Hanska, Paris, March 1833). In stark contrast to Balzac's modest apartment, an opulent bedroom now stands in the adjacent room. Mahogany furniture, plush crimson curtains, religious paintings by famous artists, symbolic sloped canopy bed<\/em>: the details all come together to bring to mind Abbot Chapeloud's apartment, the source of much envy among his brethren in the Touraine novel The Vicar of Tours<\/em>. Last but not least, two other rooms from\u00a0The Human Comedy<\/em>\u00a0appear in a second floor gallery: visitors are transported to Derville's dusty legal office (Colonel Chabert<\/em>) or F\u0153dora's intimate boudoir (The Magic Skin<\/em>).<\/p>\n

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The Vicar of Tours' bedroom at Ch\u00e2teau de Sach\u00e9,<\/em> \u00a9 Christophe Raimbault.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Balzac’s bedroom at Ch\u00e2teau de Sach\u00e9, black and white photograph, first half of the 20th century, \u00a9 SAT (Touraine Archaeological Society).   Museum Balzac in Sach\u00e9 The museum’s foundation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":17740,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17741","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nThe history of the Museum - Mus\u00e9e Balzac<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musee-balzac.fr\/en\/explore-the-museum\/history-of-the-museum\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.musee-balzac.fr\\\/en\\\/explore-the-museum\\\/history-of-the-museum\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.musee-balzac.fr\\\/en\\\/explore-the-museum\\\/history-of-the-museum\\\/\",\"name\":\"The history of the Museum - 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