Louis Hesselin

Louis Hesselin, Seigneur de Condé (; February 1602 – 8 August 1662) was a French aristocrat, government official, patron and collector. He held various positions in the royal household and became Intendant of the Menus Plaisirs around 1655.

Ancestry, name, and early career Louis Hesselin was born in Paris in the early days of February 1602 to a family of magistrates, originally from the Marne, but living in Paris for several generations.

Trips to Italy

Louis Hesselin took at least two extended trips to Italy in the 1630s: one in 1632–1633 and another in 1637. While there he may have taken the opportunity to acquire a large number of books, paintings, and objets d'art, documented much later in an inventory made after his death.

Residences In the early 1640s Hesselin had the architect Louis Le Vau build him a house, the Hôtel Hesselin (demolished 1935), on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris. He also owned a country house, the Maison Chantemesle (in what is now the Parc Chantemerle), in Essonnes on the road between Paris and the Palace of Fontainebleau. At Chantemesle he entertained French royalty and foreign travelers, including John Evelyn in 1644 and Queen Christina of Sweden in 1656.