Status, Scandal, and Home Decoration in 18th-Century Paris

Three houses. Two streets. One fashionable designer. And a network of widowed noblewomen who turned a Paris neighbourhood into their own sphere of influence.

In the newly fashionable Left Bank faubourg Saint-Germain of 1730s Paris, something remarkable was happening. Elite women – many of them widows who had gained control of property and funds after their husbands' deaths – were clustering together geographically and reshaping domestic decoration in the process. The comtesse de Rupelmonde lived on rue Saint-Dominique; her friend the maréchale de Villars just one street away; their relatives and fellow ladies-in-waiting to the queen scattered within blocks.

Explore how physical proximity between women created a decorative movement, and how the sometimes-modest homes of widows became showcases of female agency – proving that in 18th-century Paris, when it came to home comforts, these women knew to keep their friends close and their enemies closer.