042007•voltaire - anglais:032006•voltaire - angl

The visitor will find the harmonious setting
and the “good taste” of the historic building
enchanting. And, without getting quite as
carried away as Madame Suard “on
pilgrimage” to Ferney in 1775, might - like
her - say:
Centre des
monuments nationaux
Château de Voltaire
Allée du Château
BP 5
01211 Ferney-Voltaire
cedex
tél. 04 50 40 53 21
www.monumentsnationaux.fr
“J'ai enfin obtenu le but de mes désirs et de
mon voyage : j'ai vu Monsieur Voltaire ...
Le cœur me battait avec violence en entrant
dans la cour de ce château depuis tant
d'années consacré par la présence de ce
grand homme... Jamais je n'avais rien
éprouvé de semblable.”
château de Voltaire
Toute la petite société entra dans ce louable
dessein ; chacun se mit à exercer ses talents.
La petite terre rapporta beaucoup.
Cunégonde était à la vérité bien laide ; mais
elle devint une excellente pâtissière ;
Paquette broda ; la vieille eut soin du linge.
Il n'y eut pas jusqu'à frère Giroflée qui ne
rendît service ; il fut un très bon menuisier,
et même devint honnête homme ; et
Pangloss disait quelquefois à Candide :
“Tous les événements sont enchaînés dans le
meilleur des mondes possibles ; car enfin, si
vous n'aviez pas été chassé d'un beau
château à grands coups de pied dans le
derrière pour l'amour de Mlle Cunégonde, si
vous n'aviez pas été mis à l'Inquisition, si
vous n'aviez pas couru l'Amérique à pied, si
vous n'aviez pas donné un bon coup d'épée
au baron, si vous n'aviez pas perdu tous vos
moutons du bon pays d'Eldorado, vous ne
mangeriez pas ici des cédrats confits et des
pistaches”.
- Cela est bien dit, répondit Candide, mais il
faut cultiver notre jardin.”
english
Voltaire, Lord of Ferney
history
architecture
technique of marbled
clay, terracotta
covered by a glaze
imitating the veining
of marble. He used it
in the Château de
Ferney as a decorative
feature, and for the
stove and the
monument of
Voltaire’s heart.
Extract from Candide, Voltaire,
1759
crédit photos Arch. phot., P. Lemaître © Centre des monuments nationaux, Paris ; K. Swift. conception graphique LM communiquer. impression Néo-Typo, avril 2007.
Racle
*Léonard
invented the
When Voltaire took over the Ferney estate,
he decided to completely rebuild the
château. From October 1758, he directed
the works himself.
The château was completed in 1762 and
has, on the courtyard side, a classical
façade arranged symmetrically around an
entrance framed with Doric columns,
surmounted by double pilasters on the
first floor and a pediment bearing the
arms of the seigniorial lord.
The façade on the garden side
was relieved by a rounded
projecting bay, framed by Ionic
pilasters and crowned with a
curved pediment. It was replaced
in the 19th century by a flat
façade with a triangular pediment. The
grounds were laid out at the same time
and are part of the setting for the château
which dominates the site, emphasised by
the planting of tree-covered walks to the
south and to the west by a formal French
garden, a water feature and a wide
terrace. Voltaire had openings made in the
foliage of the trees below the terrace to
expose the view towards the Alps. The
neighbouring barn was fitted out as a
theatre.
Very quickly, Voltaire bowed to the
evidence: his house was too small to
accommodate his many visitors. In 1765,
he called in the architect and potter
Léonard Racle* to add two wings which
gave the building its final appearance. On
Voltaire’s death, Catherine II, the empress
of Russia, planned to build an exact copy
of the Château de Ferney in the grounds
of Tsarkoieselo, her summer palace. With
this aim, she had Léonard Racle make a
model and draw up plans of the château
and the whole estate, and purchased the
philosopher’s library. These documents,
conserved in Russia’s national library
today constitute a priceless source on
Voltaire’s château and its original layout.
Candide
A house fit for a lord
In 1758, when Voltaire, then 65 years of
age, purchased the seigniory of Ferney, he
declared he found it a «miserable hamlet»
where he then had built, keeping a close eye
on the work, the house in which he spent
the last years of his life. For almost twenty
years, Voltaire entertained numerous
distinguished guests here. While he declared
himself the « innkeeper of Europe »,
Ferney
became an
obligatory
call for an
elite who
flocked to it
from all over
Europe. From this remote retreat he railed
against social injustice and took up the
defence of the victims of political and
religious intolerance. He worked intensively
on his literary work and published, amongst
others, the Dictionnaire Philosophique,
the Traité sur la Tolérance, several
tragedies and plays. He wrote a total of
some 6,000 letters from Ferney ...
Imbued with the philosophical principles
that nourished the Age of Enlightenment, in
turn town planner, entrepreneur and patron,
he transformed the Ferney estate: draining
marshes, constructing houses, paving
streets, installing a public fountain, building
a new church, developing crafts, etc. The
hamlet of a few inhabitants became, and for
a long time, a prosperous small town with
a population of a thousand when Voltaire
decided to return to Paris where he died
in 1778.
In 1999, the State acquired the Château
de Ferney, a place where Voltaire wrote
so much in defence of the Rights of Man.
The next room, converted into Voltaire’s
bedchamber, was previously a picture
gallery and billiard room .9.
A few major items from the collection have
been brought here, notably, his dressing
gown and, above the stove, his favourite
portrait, done in pastel in 1735 by Maurice
Quentin de Latour. This portrait,
reproduced as an engraving, illustrated most
of his published work. To the left of the
fireplace is a portrait of the actor Lekain,
Voltaire’s favourite performer and famous
for the naturalism he brought to stage
action and speeches. This small room, the
last in Voltaire’s apartments, together with
the study .10. and the adjoining corridor,
still have their original layout.
The visit continues in the cyber-chocolate
café .11. installed in one of the wings
added in 1765 to enlarge the château and
which became the apartments of Mme
Denis. On leaving it, the visitor can once
again enjoy the gardens and surroundings;
after having gone round the outside of the
château beside this last wing, there is the
carp pond .12. . No exploration of Ferney
would be complete without passing through
the east wing .13. where Voltaire worked
and received visitors. This wing, the central
dividing wall of which was removed in the
19th century, included the dining room
where he pleased his guests with the most
sophisticated dishes, while the other section
was both the library and the study in which
he worked. A journey of discovery about
Voltaire’s life, with the title «L’Aubergiste de
l’Europe» now occupies this place from
which the great man so much decried the
iniquity of the society of his day.
12
7
8
9
10
11
13
3
2
1
*
follow the guide
Jean Calas
A Protestant trader
who was tortured and
then put to death in
1762, unjustly accused
of having killed his
son to prevent him
from converting to
Catholicism.
The visit starts on the terrace .1. which
offers a panoramic view over the Alps. In
the distance, the grand avenue lined with
poplars leads to Geneva. After walking the
length of the terrace, the visitor can admire
the view from the tree-lined walk in whose
shade Voltaire liked to stroll. The chapel .2.
was in fact the parish church of Ferney. In
order to create a beautiful avenue leading to
his mansion, Voltaire tried to move it but,
in the face of opposition from the clergy, he
had to rebuild it in the same place. Against
all custom, he dedicated the new building to
God and had a tomb constructed for himself
in the shape of a truncated pyramid, that
can be seen against the south wall.
Coming back towards the château, a copse
.3. marks the site of the barn theatre. Like
Voltaire’s guests, the visitor enters through
the lobby .4. where the last family to own
the property placed two statues in the
niches, of Voltaire and Rousseau, although
their enmity was well known. The main
staircase .5. leads to the first floor that
Voltaire reserved for his guests, and frames
a statue of the master of the house produced
by Léon Drivier in the early 20th century.
Passing back through the lobby, the visitor
enters the antechamber .6. where a set of
engravings portrays Voltaire’s life at Ferney.
The engraving entitled «La malheureuse
famille Calas» is a reminder of the battle
Voltaire fought to rehabilitate the memory
of Calas* through the Traité sur la
Tolérance.
6
*
La Voltairiade
is a series of pictures
of Voltaire’s daily life,
commissioned by the
Empress Catherine II
of Russia from the
painter Jean Huber.
Painted from life while
Voltaire was living at
Ferney, they helped to
popularise the image
of the mischievous
philosopher.
*Enlightened
despotism
A style of government
supposed to reconcile
absolute monarchy
and the political
theories of the
philosophy of the
Enlightenment.
4
5
A service corridor leads to what was
Voltaire’s bedchamber .7.; the partition
walls were removed in the 19th century,
eliminating his valet’s bedchamber and the
end of the service corridor.
Among the paintings from Voltaire’s
collection, the visitor will notice a pastel by
Marianne Loir above the fireplace, which
portrays the Marquise of Châtelet. She gave
refuge to Voltaire from 1734 to 1749 at her
château in Cirey while he was being
harassed by the royal authorities. Between
the two windows «L’Allegorie du Triomphe
de Voltaire» [the Allegory of the Triumph of
Voltaire] - a picture commissioned from the
painter Duplessis by the philosopher shortly
before his triumphal return to Paris - shows
his commitment, his works and, on the
right, his detractors. In the display case
are some small engraved copies of
La Voltairiade* , and engravings of
Voltaire’s friends and correspondents. The
visitor must then imagine the salon .8. and
the oval shape created by the projecting bay
which opened on to the gardens. Legend has
it that Mme Denis, Voltaire’s niece,
produced the embroideries covering the
Nogaret armchairs. The portraits of
Catherine II of Russia and Frederick II of
Prussia are a reminder that these two
sovereigns, emblematic figures of
enlightened despotism* , protected and
welcomed the philosopher as a guest.
This salon, together with the next room,
were laid out as memorial to Ferney’s
patriarch soon after his death. This is why
the monument of Voltaire’s heart, that the
Marquis de Villette had erected in his
chamber, was placed facing the marbled clay
stove.
For further information:
VOLTAIRE
René Pomeau
Seuil 1994
VOLTAIRE CHEZ LUI ,
GENÈVE ET FERNEY
Ouvrage collectif
Skira 1994
VOLTAIRE ,
LA LÉGENDE
DE SAINT AROUET
Jean Goldzink
Coll. Découvertes n°65
Gallimard 1989