The permanent exhibition “Noblesse Oblige! Life at a Château in the Eighteenth Century” is an immersive museum experience that enables visitors to share in the day-to-day life of a noble family in the Vaud region during the Enlightenment, at the end of the Ancien Régime.
The former reception rooms of Château de Prangins, comprising the salon, dining rooms and libraries, have been returned to their former splendour and form the backdrop for the exhibition. Boiserie in its original colours, textiles with lustrous motifs, and faux-marble decorations provide the perfect surroundings for some 600 objects from the era.
The theatre at Hauteville Castle, dating from 1777, which has been preserved and is on display at Prangins, is a very rare ensemble in Europe.
In the 18th century, the theatre was a very popular aristocratic pastime throughout the continent. Following Voltaire’s visit in 1750, many castles around Lake Geneva acquired theatres.
The Huguenot Cannac family, originally from Lyon and settled in Saint-Légier-La Chiésaz on the shores of Lake Geneva, introduced the theatre in Hauteville Castle. In 1777, Pierre-Philippe de Cannac commissioned the Lyon painter Joseph Audibert to paint four theatre sets. The four scenes depict a kitchen, a drawing room, a forest with ruins and a French garden.
Plays by Marivaux (1688-1763) and Molière (1622-1673), as well as those by local authors, were performed there. In Hauteville, near Vevey, the sets were reused at the beginning of the 19th century and then again in the 1920s.
The twenty frames, painted on both sides by Joseph Audibert, a master of trompe-l’œil in Lyon, depict a French garden, a picturesque forest, a bourgeois salon and a rustic bedroom.
After careful restoration, the pieces have been included in the permanent exhibition Décors. Masterpieces from the Collections. Thanks to a unique multimedia display and a stage set, the public can watch excerpts from Le médecin suisse allemand, an 18th-century comedy performed by the Théâtre de Carouge.
(Source: Château de Prangins; Der Schweizerische Verband für Konservierung und Restaurierung SKR)