At the gates of the Bois de Boulogne: a new acquisition by the Fondation Mansart

This is a painting dated 1830, attributed to Jean-Victor Bertin (1767-1842), depicting a door of the Bois de Boulogne, probably the current Porte Maillot.

From the beginning of the 18th century, doors were built around the Bois de Boulogne, then a royal hunting estate. They house official housing for the incumbent doormen or are granted to great lords. Under the reign of Louis XVI, part of the wood is open to the public, while the other remains reserved for hunting.

Under the First Empire, wood retained its function. Ceded to the State in 1848, then entrusted to the City of Paris in 1852, it was deeply redesigned under Napoleon III, who endowed the capital with new gardens and rebuilt the entrance gates in the style of the Second Empire. These doors will finally be destroyed in the 1920s, as part of the development of Paris.

This painting, now integrated into the collections of the Mansart Foundation, will join the permanent collections of the Château de Bagatelle when it reopens to the public.