French school of the mid-19th century - View of the Hôtel de Crillon

French school of the mid-19th century
Rare view of the Hôtel de Crillon in 1850
Watercolor on paper.
Monogrammed AG and dated 1850 lower right.
Excellent condition.
H. 22 x L. 30.5 cm.

Provenance
Château de Chabreville.

History
The Hôtel de Crillon is located at the left (west) end of the building adjoining the Hôtel de la Marine, on the other side of rue Royale.
This building was originally intended to house the Hôtel de la Monnaie; but it was finally divided into four lots, and n°10 (current hotel of Crillon) was acquired by the architect Louis-François Trouard; behind the facade that the architect Gabriel had created in 1758 (as part of the development project of the Place de la Concorde requested by Louis XV), Trouard built our hotel from 1765 and entrusted the interior decor to his student Pierre-Adrien Pâris. The building took the name of Aumont hotel when Trouard rented it to the Duke of Aumont in 1776, the latter occupying it until 1788.
On this date, the hotel was acquired by François-Félix de Crillon (1748 -1820) who, despite being imprisoned, could survive the Revolution, but would not recover his property until after the First Empire.
The Crillons remained owners until 1907, when a branch of the family, the Polignac Bourbon-Châlus, sold the building to the Société du Louvre, which would make it the palace we know today. At the time of our drawing, the current rue Boissy d'Anglas, on the left, was called rue des Champs-Elysées.

The building on the left, at the corner of what is now Gabriel Avenue, is the Grimod de la Reynière hotel, built in 1775 and razed in 1932 to be replaced by a neo-classical building housing the Chancery of the Embassy of the United States. At the time of our drawing, the place (belonging to the State) was occupied by the Turkish Embassy.