Paris, 1840, stucco, silk, painted, sculpted and gilt wood
The panelling in Baron Hope’s bedroom was dismantled and reconstructed in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in the mid-1930s, when the Hôtel de Monaco was bought by the State to house the Polish Embassy.
The bedroom was decorated with a coffered ceiling and painted panelling in the Neo-Renaissance style, on which figures in 16th-century dress are depicted in arcades on a gold ground, separated by sculpted pilasters. The profusion of plant motifs and the portraits in relief emerging from the medallions revive the ornamental vocabulary of the Renaissance, particularly the grotesques. Although the present colours are not the original ones - they probably date from the panelling’s arrival in the museum - with a few variations they are the same as those wished by William Hope.
The bedroom was densely furnished with Renaissance-style furniture in courbary wood (a red tropical hardwood) with copper inlay. Apart from the bed it included two chests of drawers, a mirrored wardrobe, a bedside table, two other tables, five armchairs and four chairs.