History
 Architecture and decor
 The park
 Life at Malmaison
 Joséphine and her children
 Origin of the collections

History of Malmaison Castle

	Jacques Antoine Marie Lemoine (1751-1824) Portrait of Jacques-Jean Lecoulteux du Molay (1740-1823), banker, former owner of la Malmaison (from 1771 to 1799).

The origins of the name of Malmaison apparently date back to the existence of a hideout used by Norman invaders as their base for carrying out raids on the surrounding region. The first mention of this “Mala domus” (evil house) in texts was in 1244. A manor house is referred to in the 14th Century under the name of La Malmaison (the evil house).
In 1390 the land was purchased by Guillaume Goudet, serjeant-at-arms to Charles VI, and was to remain in his family, which became successively, the Dauvergne, Perrot and Barentin family, until 1763. From 1737 onward the Castle was rented to rich financiers, who used it to receive the cream of society.
In 1763 the land passed into the hands of the son of the Chancellor d’Aguesseau, then in 1771 to Jacques-Jean Le Couteulx du Molay, a rich banker of the kingdom. Madame du Molay held a literary salon there, where she received the Abbé Delille, Madame Vigée-Lebrun, Grimm and Bernardin de Saint-Pierre.

Charles-Louis Lingée (1748-1819) ; François Godefroy (1743-1819) ; after Jean-Baptiste Isabey (1767-1855) First Consul Bonaparte in the park at Malmaison

The Revolution led them to part with Malmaison, which they sold to Joséphine Bonaparte on 21 April 1799 for the sum of FF 325,000. This purchase was approved by Bonaparte on his return from Egypt, whereupon he became the true owner of the estate. From 1800 to 1802 this small castle became, together with the Tuileries , the seat of the French government, and frequently hosted the ministers of the Consulate.
In the autumn of 1802 the Consul and his family set up home in Saint-Cloud Cloud and Joséphine made frequent return visits to the “Imperial Palace of Malmaison” in order to renovate and extend the estate. After the divorce in 1809, the Emperor gave her this property together with its collections, and it was there that she was to die on 29 May 1814. Her son, Prince Eugène, inherited the property but his widow sold Malmaison to the Swedish banker Jonas Hagerman in 1828.

	Pierre-Joseph Petit (active between 1795 and1819) View of Malmaison Castle (side facing the park)

In 1842, Queen Christine of Spain, the widow of King Ferdinand VII, acquired the castle as a place of residence, then in 1861 sold it back to Napoléon III, Joséphine’s grandson. Damaged by fighting during the war of 1870, then by the installation of barracks in the castle, the estate was sold by the State in 1877 to a goods merchant who progressively sold off parcels of land from the park. In 1896, Daniel Iffla, known as Osiris , purchased the castle together with its park, by now reduced to 6 hectares, and donated it to the State in 1904. A museum was inaugurated on the estate in 1906.

© Malmaison Castle National Museum - RMN