When Impressionism meets Second Empire splendor - Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
Dear readers, do you know that there are about 130 museums (as of now) in Paris? Besides the most iconic ones such as Musée du Louvre, Musée d'Orsay or even the more contemporary ones like Foundation Louis Vuitton, how many museums in Paris have you visited? While I perfectly understand that for most of the first-timer to Paris, those are the key museums that one needs to go, but as someone who is no longer a first-timer to Paris, that actually allows me to explore the more interesting ones, and sometimes, the lesser-known museums that are not familiar by many people, yet, more fascinating than those prominent touristic ones. During this revisit to Paris after six years, I had pulled together a list of museums and historic monuments that I wanted to go, among one of them, is the spectacular Musée Marmottan Monet.
Located in the 16th arrondissement, which is relatively close to the famous public park, Bois de Boulogne, also one of the most affluent and decent Parisian residential district, Musée Marmottan Monet is like a hidden jewel box that combined valuable art and sumptuous classic French interior design. Originally a hunting lodge for François Christophe Edmond Kellermann, Duke of Valmy, who purchased the plot of land and built his luxury private mansion there, the estate was later purchased by a rich entrepreneur at the head of a mining company, Jules Marmottan, in 1882, then he left it to his son, Paul Marmottan, a French art historian, collector and patron, who moved into the lodge later. With his interest in the Napoleonic era, he expanded his father’s art collection until his death in 1932, he bequeathed his collection, his Parisian mansion and his villa in Boulogne to the Académie des beaux-arts, which becomes the Musée Marmottan Monet as we know today.
You may ask: “well, Paris is full of art museums anyway, what’s so special about this museum?” Well, if those of you are a fan or art connoisseur of Impressionism, this is one of the Parisian museum that you can’t miss. The art collection inside Musée Marmottan Monet is the result of a couple of major donations on top of the original art collection in the First Empire era from the Marmottan family, the first one is the significant collection of Impressionist art donated by Victorine Donop de Monchy, the daughter of Doctor Georges de Bellio, a physician to numerous Impressionist artists including Monet, Renoir and Pissarro etc. in 1957; the second one, which donated by Michel Monet, the second son of the reputed French Impressionist artist, Claude Monet, in 1966, it consisted of his own collection of his father’s work, which made up the world’s largest collection of Monet’s paintings in the museum; and then in 1985, Nelly Duhem, the adopted daughter of painter Henri Duhem, donated his large collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art to the museum as well, which makes this one of the mecca for the art of Impressionism.
One can find the most iconic paintings there such as the Nymphéas series (1903 and 1926 ones) by painter Claude Monet, also a series of Impressionist art by painter Berthe Morisot, I was intrigued by her “Au bal” (1875) and “Le jardin à Bougival” (1884) in particular, which gave me a certain fantasy spring-elegance vibe that is pretty refreshing to the eyes, of course there are a series of art collection ranged from the Middle Ages to the Second Empire era as well, but what interested me more is the luxurious interior, home furnishing and bronze objet d’Art, which distributed in respective salons; one of my favorite is the (former) dining salon (I believe) with the wall finished in Robin-egg-blue color and white door panels in Second-Empire-meets-Neoclassic style, with a touch of gold decoration that echoes the bronze tabletop by French sculptor, Pierre-Philippe Thomire, and the glamorous chandelier that hanged right above it, the sumptuous and aristocratic atmosphere, I can almost visualized the beautiful soiree that once threw in this room, and filled with all the elegantly dressed guests and elites; by the way, one can also find the another famous Impressionist art “Rue de Paris, temps de pluie” (1877) by painter Gustave Caillebotte in there too!
Another favorite room of mine is on the first floor, which I possibly believe it’s one of the bedroom in the past, not only one can find the spectacular chandelier “Lustre aux musiciennes” by French sculptor Pierre-Philippe Thomire once again, the two cabinets inside which showcased a series of ceramics and table-top objet d’Art are pretty intriguing and eye-catching as well!
After visiting the inside, one can also enjoy a cup of coffee at the outside garden, to marvel the spectacular exterior of the estate, and of course, do a little souvenir shopping in their museum shop before leaving!
If any one of you have made a visit there before, do let me know which part of this museum is your favorite, and how did you like the art collection there?