Art Museum sights in Paris
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Musée du Louvre
The vast Palais du Louvre was constructed as a fortress by Philippe-Auguste in the early 12th century and rebuilt in the mid-16th century as a royal residence. The Revolutionary Convention turned it into a national museum in 1793.
The paintings, sculptures and artefacts on display in the Louvre Museum have been amassed by subsequent French governments. Among them are works of art and artisanship from all over Europe and collections of Assyrian, Etruscan, Greek, Coptic and Islamic art and antiquities. The Louvre’s raison d’être is essentially to present Western art from the Middle Ages to about 1848 (at which point the Musée d’Orsay takes over), as well as works from…
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Musée d'Orsay
Fresh from renovations that incorporate richly coloured walls, a re-energised layout and increased exhibition space, the home of France’s national collection from the impressionist, postimpressionist and art nouveau movements spanning the 1840s and 1914 is the glorious former Gare d’Orsay railway station – itself an art nouveau showpiece – where a roll-call of masters and their world-famous works are on display.
Top of every visitor’s must-see list is the museum’s painting collections, centred on the world’s largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist art. Just some of its highlights are Manet’s On The Beach and Woman With Fans; Monet’s…
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Centre Pompidou
Former French President Georges Pompidou wanted an ultracontemporary artistic hub, and he got it: competition-winning architects Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers effectively designed the building inside out, with utilitarian features such as plumbing, pipes, air vents and electrical cables forming part of the external façade, freeing up the interior space for exhibitions and events. Paris’ premier cultural centre has amazed visitors since it was inaugurated in 1977.
On the ground floor, the Forum du Centre Pompidou has temporary exhibitions and information desks, while the 4th and 5th floors house the Musée National d’Art Moderne, France’s national collection of art…
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Musée de l'Orangerie
Located in the southwestern corner of the Jardin des Tuileries, this museum, with the Jeu de Paume, is all that remains of the once palatial Palais des Tuileries, which was razed during the Paris Commune in 1871. It exhibits important Impressionist works, including a series of Monet's Decorations des Nymphéas (Water Lilies) in two huge oval rooms purpose-built in 1927 on the artist's instructions, as well as works by Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Sisley, Soutine and Utrillo. An audioguide costs €5.
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Dalí Espace Montmartre
More than 300 works by Salvador Dalí (1904–89), the flamboyant Catalan surrealist printmaker, painter, sculptor and self-promoter, are on display at this surrealist-style basement museum located just west of place du Tertre. The collection includes Dalí’s strange sculptures (most in reproduction), lithographs, many of his illustrations and furniture, including the famous Mae West lips sofa.
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Musée Jacquemart-André
The Jacquemart-André Museum, founded by collector Édouard André and his portraitist wife Nélie Jacquemart, is in an opulent mid-19th-century residence on one of Paris’ posher avenues. It has furniture, tapestries and enamels, but is most noted for its paintings by Rembrandt and Van Dyck and Italian Renaissance works by Bernini, Botticelli, Carpaccio, Donatello, Mantegna, Tintoretto, Titian and Uccello. Don’t miss the Jardin d’Hiver (Winter Garden), with its marble statuary, tropical plants and double-helix marble staircase. Just off it is the delightful fumoir (the erstwhile smoking room) filled with exotic objects collected by Jacquemart during her travels. The…
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Musée du Quai Branly
No other museum in Paris provides such inspiration for travellers, armchair anthropologists and those who simply appreciate the beauty of traditional craftsmanship. A tribute to the incredible diversity of human culture, the Musée du Quai Branly, which opened in 2006, presents an overview of indigenous and folk art from around the world.
Divided into four main sections – Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Americas – the museum showcases an impressive array of masks, carvings, weapons, jewellery and more, all displayed in a refreshingly unique interior without rooms or high walls. Be sure to check out the temporary exhibits and performances, both of which are generally…
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Palais de Tokyo
The Tokyo Palace, created for the 1937 Exposition Universelle and now a contemporary art space, has no permanent collection. Instead its shell-like interior of polished concrete and steel is the stark backdrop for rotating, interactive art installations (the rooftop, for example, has been the setting for attention-getting projects like the transient Hotel Everland and the see-through restaurant Nomiya). Exhibition space was tripled in 2012.
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Musée Cognacq-Jay
This museum in Hôtel de Donon brings together oil paintings, pastels, sculpture, objets d’art, jewellery, porcelain and furniture from the 18th century assembled by Ernest Cognacq (1839–1928), founder of La Samaritaine department store, and his wife Louise Jay.
Although Cognacq appreciated little of his collection, boasting to all who would listen that he had never visited the Louvre and was only acquiring collections for the status, the artwork and objets d’art give a pretty good idea of upper-class tastes during the Age of Enlightenment. Temporary exhibitions command admission fee.
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Musée Dapper
Focused on African and Caribbean art, this jewel of a museum is an invitation to leave Paris behind for an hour or two. Although exhibits rotate throughout the year, expect to find a superb collection of ritual and festival masks and costumes accompanied by several video presentations in each room. The ever-active auditorium sponsors cultural events year-round, from concerts to storytelling and films.
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Musée Guimet des Arts Asiatiques
France’s foremost Asian art museum has a superb collection of sculptures, paintings and religious articles that originated in the vast stretch of land between Afghanistan and Japan. It’s possible to observe the gradual transmission of both Buddhism and artistic styles along the Silk Road in some of the museum’s pieces, from the 1st-century Gandhara Buddhas from Afghanistan and Pakistan to the later Central Asian, Chinese and Japanese Buddhist sculptures and art.
Part of the collection, comprised of Buddhist paintings and sculptures, is housed in the nearby Galeries du Panthéon Bouddhique du Japon et de la Chine. Don’t miss the wonderful Japanese garden here.
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Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
The permanent collection at the city’s modern-art museum displays works representative of just about every major artistic movement of the 20th and nascent 21st centuries: Fauvism, cubism, Dadaism, and so on up through video installations. While it merits a wander – you’ll find works by Modigliani, Matisse, Braque and Soutine here – the permanent collection is not quite at the level of the Centre Pompidou.
There is one jewel of a room though, containing several gorgeous canvases from Dufy and Bonnard. The main reason for a trip here is to check out one of the cutting-edge temporary exhibits.
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Musée National Gustave Moreau
Dedicated to the work of symbolist painter Gustave Moreau, this two-storey museum is housed in his former studio and crammed with 4800 of his paintings, drawings and sketches. Although symbolism received more attention as a literary movement in France (Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud), his fellow painters abroad included such notables as Klimt and Munch.
One particularly highlight here is La Licorne (The Unicorn), inspired by La Dame à la Licorne (The Lady with the Unicorn) cycle of tapestries in the Musée National du Moyen Âge. Reduced admission is granted with a ticket from the Palais Garnier or Musée d’Orsay.
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Musée Cernuschi
The Cernuschi Museum is comprised of an excellent and rare collection of ancient Chinese art (funerary statues, bronzes, ceramics), much of which predates the Tang dynasty (618–907), in addition to diverse pieces from Japan. Milan banker and philanthropist Henri Cernuschi (1821–96), who settled in Paris before the unification of Italy, assembled the collection during a world tour from 1871–73.
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Musée Marmottan Monet
This museum, two blocks east of the Bois de Boulogne between Porte de la Muette and Porte de Passy, has the world’s largest collection of works by impressionist painter Claude Monet (1840-1926) – about 100 – as well as paintings by Gauguin, Sisley, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, Manet and Berthe Morisot. It also contains an important collection of French, English, Italian and Flemish miniatures from the 13th to the 16th centuries.
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La Pinacothèque
The top private museum in Paris, La Pinacothèque organises three to four major exhibits per year. Its nonlinear approach to art history, with exhibits that range from Mayan masks to retrospectives covering the work of artists such as Edvard Munch, has shaken up the otherwise rigid Paris art world and won over residents used to more formal presentations elsewhere.
Although the focus here is primarily on temporary exhibits, make sure to visit the permanent collection as well. Displayed thematically, it presents artwork rarely seen side by side in most other museums.
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Fondation Dubuffet
Situated in a lovely 19th-century hôtel particulier (private mansion) at the end of a courtyard, the foundation houses the collection of Jean Dubuffet (1901–85), chief of the Art Brut school (a term he himself coined to describe all works of artistic expression not officially recognised). Much of his work is incredibly modern and expressive.
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Musée de La Halle St-Pierre
Founded in 1986, this museum and gallery is in the lovely old covered St Peter’s Market. It focuses on the primitive and Art Brut schools; there is no permanent collection but the museum stages three temporary exhibitions a year. There’s a lovely cafe on-site.
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Petit Palais
Like the Grand Palais opposite, this architectural stunner was also built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, and is home to the Paris municipality’s Museum of Fine Arts. It specialises in medieval and Renaissance objets d’art such as porcelain and clocks, tapestries, drawings and 19th-century French painting and sculpture. There are also paintings here by such artists as Rembrandt, Colbert and Cézanne.
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Musée en Herbe
One of the city’s great backstreet secrets, this children’s museum is a surprise gem for art lovers of every age, not just kids. Its permanent exhibition changes every March and focuses on the work of one artist through a series of interactive displays.
Captions are in English as well as French, children get a jeu de piste (activity sheet) to guide and entertain, and additional workshops and guided visits for kids and adults – think hands-on art workshops, afternoon tea, early evening aperitif and so on (€6 to €10, reserve in advance) – add to the playful experience.
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Musée de l’Érotisme
The Museum of Erotic Art attempts to raise around 2000 titillating statuary, stimulating sexual aids and fetishist items to a loftier plane, with antique and modern erotic art from four continents spread out across several floors. Some of the exhibits are, well, breathtaking, to say the least.
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Les Arts Décoratifs
A trio of privately administered museums collectively known as the Decorative Arts sit in the Rohan Wing of the vast Palais du Louvre. Admission includes entry to all three here as well as the Musée Nissim de Camondo in the 8e. Temporary exhibitions, open until 9pm on Thursday, command an additional fee.
The Musée des Arts Décoratifs (Applied Arts Museum) displays furniture, jewellery and such objets d’art as ceramics and glassware from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance through the art nouveau and art deco periods to modern times.
The much smaller Musée de la Publicité (Advertising Museum) has some 100,000 posters in its collection dating as far back as the 13th…
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Atelier Brancusi
West of the Centre Pompidou main building, this reconstruction of the studio of Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) designed by Renzo Piano contains some 160 examples of the sculptor’s work.
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