GREAT MUSEUMS GUIDE 2014 PARIS


easily, and delightfully, be visited during the course of an afternoon. ● Hôtel Scheffer-Renan, 16 rue Chapital, Paris 9th +33 1 55 31 95 67 www.vie-romantique.paris.fr


Musée Gustave Moreau This wonderful town house museum was once the elegantly eccentric home and studio of Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau (1826-98). The top two floors were the artist’s studios and are hung wall-to-wall with his luminous religious and mythological scenes – many unfinished – which influenced many later French artists, particularly the surrealists.


The Musée de la Vie Romantique, the former home and studio of Ary Scheffer, also features the work of his friend, George Sand


Musée Nissim de Camondo There is no better testament to the French art de vivre in Paris than the former home of Moïse de Camondo, who was a collector of rare discernment and passion, born in Istanbul to the largest banking family in the Ottoman Empire. Camondo’s mansion, built 1911, in the style of Versailles’ Petit Trianon,


preserves his exquisite collection of 18th-century French art objects and furniture just as it was when inhabited by his family.


The museum also pays testament to a great French tragedy. Moïse’s son and only heir, Nissim Camondo, was killed in 1917 in an air battle during World War 1. Upon Moïse’s death in 1935, he bequeathed the house and all its contents to the French state, in memory of his lost son. A few years later, his daughter Béatrice, son-in-law Léon Reinach and their two children were deported from France and murdered at Auschwitz. There were no other heirs and the family name died with them. ● 63 rue de Monceau, Paris 8th +33 1 53 89 06 50 www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/nissim -de-camondo-742


Musée de la Vie Romantique


The Musée Nissim de Camondo houses an exquisite 18th-century collection


This charming Italianate villa on a leafy cobbled street was once


home of the artist Ary Scheffer, who painted here in the mid-1800s. His salon attracted the leading artistic and literary lights of the day: Chopin, Ingres, Turgenev, Delacroix and George Sand, Scheffer’s friend and neighbour. The ground floor of the museum is dedicated to Sand and includes portraits, furniture, letters and a model of the hand of her lover, Frederic Chopin. Upstairs you can see Scheffer’s paintings, alongside works by his contemporaries. Although its permanent collection is small, the museum organises excellent temporary exhibitions all year-round. The popular garden café is a lovely quiet spot for a drink, lunch or tea, before a stroll around the picturesque neighbourhood once called ‘New Athens’ due to the number of artists and writers who lived there.


The museum is a pleasant five-minute stroll from the Musée Gustave Moreau and the two can


A well-known painter and teacher – his students included both Georges Rouault and Matisse – Moreau’s work had an important impact on the music and literature of his time. His studios and object-crammed living


Gustave Moreau’s studios and quarters have been perfectly preserved


quarters are maintained exactly as they were during the artist’s lifetime. This is no accident as Moreau himself masterminded his legacy and planned to donate the house as a museum upon his death. The top three floors have been undergoing extensive renovations since 2002, opening up six beautifully refurbished rooms previously closed to the public. The remainder of these


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