If you like the Impressionists, the Marmottan Monet museum is the place to go. The museum has the largest collection in the world of Monet’s works, including 94 canvases, 29 drawings and 8 sketchbooks, not to mention his palettes, letters, photographs and personal belongings. Beyond the works of Claude Monet, the museum has many paintings by Caillebotte, Degas, Pissarro, Renoir and Morisot.
The building as such is a mansion bequeathed to the French Academy by art historian Paul Marmottan upon his death in 1932.
The mansion encloses treasures from the French First Empire – which fascinated Paul Marmottan, and from Middle Ages and Renaissance eras – which fascinated Paul’s father, Jules Marmottan.
The museum opened in 1934 and benefited from large donations, notably that of Michel Monet, the last direct descendant of Claude Monet, with 89 paintings – or that of Daniel Wildenstein who offered the collection of ancient illuminations of his father Georges Widelstein. Finally, Berthe Morisot’s grandchildren bequeath their collection through their foundation.
In fact, the Marmottan Monet museum, which is today the largest world collection of works by Monet and Morisot, is also very eclectic due to the diversity of the collections bequeathed – whether we speak of ancient illuminations, First Empire or Renaissance.
January 28, 2022
