1811: The buyout of the château and the reconstitution of the historic fiefdom

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The year 1811 marked a decisive turning point in the property's history. The Château de Grand’Maisons and its outbuildings were sold at auction before the Court of First Instance of the Seine for the sum of 28,050 francs. The buyer, Thomas Jean-Baptiste Merlin (1750-1826), was a prominent figure of the Parisian upper bourgeoisie: formerly the Receiver General of Estates and Forests for the generality of Alençon, he had become a stockbroker, collector, and aesthete.

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This acquisition took on a unique heritage dimension thanks to his wife, Marie-Françoise Tricard (1753-1816). Hailing from a wealthy Parisian family, she had acquired the Grand’Maisons farm, located on the lands of the former royal lordship of Villepreux, in February 1798 with her first husband, Louis Michel Bocquet. What had initially been a simple financial investment for the Bocquet couple—who had temporarily retreated to their country house in Meudon to escape the Revolutionary riots—became a long-term project. By 1803, Marie-Françoise had purchased the Dauphin grove (known as the Saint-Fiacre wood) and rebuilt the farmer's dwelling.

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After becoming a widow, she married Mr. Merlin in 1808, bringing these agricultural lands with her. Thus, the buyout of the château by her new husband in 1811 allowed for the reconstitution of the old fiefdom as it had been originally designed by the Francine family in the 17th century, gathering together what the vagaries of history had scattered.

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A haven of stability immortalized in paint

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Monsieur and Madame Merlin belonged to that generation of the wealthy bourgeoisie whose lives were shaped by the upheavals of a transforming France. Having lived through the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, and the Empire, they saw Grand'Maisons as a promise of permanence. In a France of short-lived political regimes, they turned the estate into a haven of stability. This life trajectory and the endurance of their status are spectacularly reflected in art history through the couple's portraits:

• Marie-Françoise, immortalized by Girodet: She had the privilege of being painted twice by the famous Neoclassical painter Anne-Louis Girodet. The first time was in 1804, under the name of Madame Bocquet, draped in a green shawl. The second time was in 1810, as Madame Merlin, posing this time with a yellow shawl, thus marking the passage of time and her new union within the same social sphere.

• Thomas Jean-Baptiste, the permanence of features: He also sat for Girodet, who painted his portrait in 1789 on the eve of the Revolution. Thirty-one years later, in 1820, the painter Martin Drolling produced a new portrait of Merlin. Strikingly, Drolling faithfully reproduced Girodet's composition: Thomas Jean-Baptiste is depicted in the exact same position, under the same light, and wearing the same attire. On his jacket lapel, a single detail spans time identically: a red ribbon pinned to the buttonhole. This social marker, worn daily under the Empire and the Restoration, symbolizes his appointment to a prestigious order, most likely the Legion of Honor. Reproduced by both painters, this detail bears witness to his success as a high-ranking official and financier, asserting the continuity of his identity through changing political regimes.

 

Yet, for this couple of aesthetes, who usually resided in their building on Rue Louis-le-Grand in Paris, the Château de Grand'Maisons served only as a sparsely furnished summer residence. It was, in fact, in Paris that Marie-Françoise passed away in 1816 at the age of 63.

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The final unification and the bequest to Augustine de Veaux (1826)

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Following the death of his wife, Mr. Merlin continued to expand the property by purchasing the neighboring Les Mézus farm, completing the reunification of the historic plots of Grand'Maisons. Upon his death in Villepreux in 1826, Thomas Jean-Baptiste Merlin bequeathed all his property and this restored estate to his goddaughter and stepdaughter, Augustine Bocquet (the future Augustine Bertin de Veaux). Through this founding gesture, the Merlins did not merely preserve architecture; they anchored their lineage in a place sheltered from the turmoil of the capital, paving the way for Augustine to complete the château starting in 1828.