THE HOTEL DE CAUMONT MUSEUM is a very exceptional mansion!

In addition to the buildings, apartments and garden which are magnificent, the temporary exhibitions are always interesting, and do not miss to take the time to eat in the lounges or in the pleasant French garden.

A HOTEL "BETWEEN COURTYARD AND GARDEN"

The Hôtel de Caumont Centre d'Art is located a stone's throw from Cours Mirabeau, in an aristocratic district of the old town of Aix-en-Provence, the Mazarin district. Of Parisian influence, it is a hotel "between courtyard and garden", architectural scheme appeared in Paris in the sixteenth century, which reported on an urban scale, corresponds to the castle and its park. Four elements characterize this type of plan: the portal, the courtyard, the main building and the garden, ranging hierarchically from the public space to the private space.

The hotel is built on a square plot of land with the main body of the building to the north-east, the main courtyard to the north-west, an enclosed garden to the south-east and the commons building with a farmyard to the south-west. The structure "between courtyard and garden" is here adapted to the square surface and is staggered and not in a row.

This type of construction "between courtyard and garden" disappeared in 1680 in Aix-en-Provence, favoring the construction of hotels on the street to stand out from the Parisian style. The portals are then more decorated in a baroque trend characteristic of southern taste.

By the scale of its design unparalleled in Aix-en-Provence, it represents a sample of French architecture of the eighteenth century. For their quality, the carriage gate, the façade and the wrought iron staircase banister were listed in the supplementary inventory of Historic Monuments in 1925. The entire hotel was listed in 1987.

THE COURT OF COMMONS

The courtyard of the commons, named "basse-cour" on the plans of Robert de Cotte, is a rectangular esplanade bordered by three buildings. It was in this courtyard that the carriages and sedan chairs armored and painted in bright colors of the guests were parked.

To the south, the building with the three carriage doors under basket handle housed the former stables of the hotel. In the eighteenth century, this shed was used daily by servants: women processed linen and food reception, men kept tools.

The east wing, now occupied by the reception of the Art Center, was designed for the accommodation of servants. An army of maids, maids, valets, butlers, grooms, kitchen staff, maintained the lifestyle and prestige of the masters of the house. The space dedicated to the servants was therefore cramped, but the work being intense, they spent only a short time there.

The building to the west, with blind windows, housed a gallery with the Brunys' art collection. The mouldings and crossettes of the windows of this façade harmoniously repeat the decoration of the main façade.

In the northeast corner of the courtyard, there is a stone well, essential to the life of the house.

THE MAIN COURTYARD AND THE COURTYARD FAÇADE

The initial plans for the hotel were the work of Robert de Cotte. He had designed for the hotel a façade that had to impose the social status proper to the nobility. The first project was in the classical taste that was then authoritative in Parisian circles. The son of the sponsor, Joseph François, modified the initial project to achieve a more southern result and less marked by Parisian architectural classicism with a much larger décor.

The sculptures on the façade, begun in 1717, are the work of two hitherto little-known local artists: Rambot and Dhuez. The first carved the roses and drops of the central balcony, the second the allegorical metopes of the frieze, the faunal mask of the entrance door, the cornices, the firepots of the roof and the coat of arms of the pediment, now disappeared. The allegorical metopes made by Rambot are still visible today: military trophies and warship evoke the feats of arms of Réauville while the two metopes of the c

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